


This Tangled Web We Weave

by backtobats (timelesslords)



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Allies To Lovers, Alternate Universe - Batman Fusion, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Angst, F/M, Hospitals, James Potter & Lily Evans Potter Live, Kidnapping, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Medical Procedures, Mentions of drugs, Minor Character Death, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, Missing Persons, Mystery, Serious Injuries, Slow Burn, Sort Of, Street fighting, Surprisingly not crack, anti-billionaire sentiments are expressed, background remus lupin - Freeform, background sirius black - Freeform, batman understands that crime is a symptom of socio-economic issues, james potter is batman, like they're alive bc it's an AU idk if that counts, mentions of bombs, some OCs in relatively minor roles, wolfstar if you squint
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:01:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 30,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26352346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timelesslords/pseuds/backtobats
Summary: Lily Evans is a Gotham transplant, a gifted paramedic well loved by her friends and, on occasion, her family. Unbeknownst to them, she's also the resident medic for one of Gotham's many underground fighting rings. James Potter is an elusive billionaire, considered by most to be an airheaded rich kid. What most people don't know is that James is actually pretty smart-at least, he is when he's not dressing up like a bat to fight crime.Fate facilitates their meeting, but the city will keep both sets of double lives together. You see, people are going missing in Gotham, and only Lily and the Batman together are capable of finding out whyCurrently on hiatus (2/10/21)
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 28
Kudos: 41





	1. Chapter 1

#### "...What seems conceit,

#### bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign

#### of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.

#### You do not know what wars are going on

#### down there where the spirit meets the bone."

##### Miller Williams, _The Ways We Touch_

_***_

Lily Evans was really starting to hate her job.

Not that her job was all that enjoyable to begin with. It was rewarding, sure, but enjoyable? Not so much.  
Rewarding was usually enough, considering the pay wasn’t completely terrible, but sometimes she did end up in pickles like this. Also sometimes her patients tried to kill her, but she would honestly prefer that to being trapped in a pile of rubble with a metal bar that probably weighed two tons pinning her legs down.

She supposed she was lucky in that the metal bar in question wasn't actually crushing her legs— by some miracle it was propped up by some other rubble. It was too tight to get herself out, but her legs didn't feel broken. Of course, this wasn't helping her that much in the long run, considering that some other part of the building would probably come crashing down at any second and crush the rest of her body before anybody would be able to find her. But in the meantime she was enjoying the relative lack of pain two not-broken legs was affording her.

She had thought she knew what she was getting into when she moved to Gotham. It was a little more dangerous, a little more crime, a few more supervillains than the average town. But getting very nearly blown up? That was pushing it.

She hoped Marlene had gotten out alright. She couldn't even begin to think about the alternative. Calling Marlene her work partner would be reductive— they were best friends. Really, Marlene was the only friend Lily had in Gotham, and the thought of her not making it through this was unbearable. They were stupid to separate, but how were they supposed to know? The people they had come here to help were almost certainly dead by now, though Lily didn’t let herself feel guilty about that, since she was probably about to follow them. Stupid Joker with his stupid bombs, and stupid them for falling for the oldest trick in the book. Bomb number one creates victims. Bomb number two kills the first responders.

She was extremely lucky she wasn't dead. She had been just at the edge of rubble when the second round went off, knocking both her and the rest of the building over. So now she was stuck, and that was that. She wasn't even sure how long it had been, since she was fairly sure she had been knocked out for part of it. It felt fuzzy already, which probably meant she had a concussion on top of everything else.

Maybe Petunia had been right all along. Maybe she had been an idiot for moving to Gotham, which according to Petunia was where all the weirdos were. That wasn't completely true. Superman was considered a weirdo by Petunia's standards, and he never showed his face around here. But then again, Lily mused, they had plenty of other weirdos to make up for it. Including the Joker, and his stupid bombs.

She wondered if she was ever going to get out of here. Sometimes it took like 3 days for people to get rescued from these types of things, and even that seemed like a kind estimate at this point. She wasn't sure it was even possible for people to get in and out of all of this mess. Just as she had that thought, she thought she saw a flash of something in the distance.

“Hello?” She called out, hardly daring to hope that she hadn't imagined it.

She was starting to think she really had imagined it when she saw the flash again, closer this time.

“Hey!” She yelled, struggling to move instinctively and wincing as her leg shifted into an even more uncomfortable position.

“Hey.” Someone said, behind her, and Lily screamed just a little bit. The figure edged to her side, and then she understood.

The Batman.

“Jesus.” She said, heart still pounding, “you could give someone a warning.”

“Sorry.” The Bat said, and he did sound it. There was something distorting his voice, but not to the point where he wasn’t able to emote.

“Damn right.” Lily said, “Fuck.”

But the bat wasn’t listening to her anymore. Instead, he was inspecting the metal bar that was trapping her leg. Lily realized where the light was coming from.

“Are you wearing... a headlamp?”

“It’s efficient.” The Bat said, turning to look at her. There was something glassy in his mask that covered his eyes, but Lily thought she could read confusion in his expression. Maybe she was just projecting. She held her hand up over her eyes, blocking the light from her overly sensitive eyes.

“Sorry.” He said again, turning back to her leg.

“Am I fucked?” Lily asked, craning over, trying to assess the situation in more detail. It did not look promising to her.

“Probably not.” The bat said, though he didn’t sound entirely convinced.

“You’re a bad liar.” Lily said.

“Worse than you think.” The Bat said, in an offhand sort of way.

“Well are you gonna get me out of here or what?”

“If I lift this bar can you move your leg?”

“Can I- you can’t lift that thing! It’s gotta be at least a thousand pounds!”

“Suspend your disbelief. Could you move?”

“I don’t know, I—”

“But you can try?"

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Alright. On three.”

“On—?“

“One, two, three!”

The Batman somehow, some fucking way, lifted the metal beam like it was a toothpick. Lily pushed herself backwards, trying to pull her knee in before the bar was dropped again. Lily wiggled her toes experimentally. Still there, but her legs felt numb.

"How the fuck did you do that?" Lily asked.

"Practice." The bat said, offering her a hand. Lily accepted it, starting to stand up, but severely underestimated how numb her legs actually were. As a result, she almost toppled over, and probably would have if the Bat didn't catch her.

"Careful." he said.

"I'm trying." She said. Then the pins and needles started, and she collapsed back on the ground. She felt like every little inch of her leg was being stabbed. Then she had a belated head rush from standing too fast. She groaned, putting her head between her knees. The bat just looked at her.

“Your bedside manner sucks.” Lily complained, glancing up at his masked face from between her knees.

“You’re right. I didn’t even ask your name.”

"Lily. Lily Evans."

"Nice to meet you, Lily Lily Evans."

Lily looked up at the glassy, expressionless eyes, momentarily distracted by the pounding pain in her head.

"Was that supposed to be funny?" she asked.

"Maybe." The bat said. He was smiling, just a little bit.

"You have a terrible sense of humor."

"True." The bad said agreeably.

Lily started to prop herself up, but the Bat stopped her.

“You can’t walk.” He said, and there was a note of incredulity in his tone.

“I can limp,” she said, attempting to push him off and failing miserably. Sure, her legs felt like jelly and her head felt like someone was using it as a gong, but she was not going to be carried out of here. The bat looked at her, then sighed and offered a hand.

Lily, as a paramedic, knew this was an inane and medically unsound thing to do. Lily, as a person, could not let herself be carried out like a damsel in distress. Lily's personhood won out over her medical professionalism, as was often the case.

Standing was a slow process, even with his help, but a few minutes later he was propping her up, supporting probably 75% of her weight and her bad leg. She was close enough to see the 5 o'clock shadow on his exposed chin, and smell the smoky leather of his suit. She wondered if it always smelled like that, or if it was just because of the bombs.

“How many people died?” Lily asked, remembering the screams that had stopped so quickly.

“At least twelve. They’re still pulling people out.”

Lily shivered involuntarily.

“Where’s the joker?”

“Don’t know.”

Lily stopped limping along, forcing the Bat to stop alongside her.

“What the fuck are you doing here then?”

“A lot of first responders are missing. They’re short-staffed.”

Lily thought about how many normal people would have been required to get her out from under that beam.

“How many died?” Lily asked, starting to limp along again. The Bat glanced at her, eyes lingering on her paramedic patch.

“Three.”

Something tightened in her throat. She cleared it.

“My partner, Marlene McKinnon— we got separated when the second set of bombs went off.”

“I don’t know any of the names.” The Bat said, apologetically.

They shuffled along in silence for a few minutes. Lily could see light peeking through cracks in the building, and soon they were outside. The sun was starting to rise, and Lily realized she’d been trapped a lot longer than she had thought.

“Lily!” Someone yelled, and then Marlene was running towards her. She had a cut on her face that was bandaged, but she looked fine otherwise. Lily’s heart swelled— she was alright.

“Are you al- oh shit. We need a gurney over here!” She yelled over her shoulder.

“I’m fine.” Lily said automatically.

“You let her walk?” Marlene yelled at the Bat, ignoring her. The Bat didn’t react. Someone rolled a gurney over and the Bat eased her down onto it.

"Are you alright?" Marlene asked, turning her attention to Lily. She had a nasty cut above her eye that had been hastily bandanged, but she looked fine otherwise.

"I'm fine." Lily said automatically.

She looked around, realizing she hadn't even said thank you. But it was too late. By the time she turned around, the batman was already gone.


	2. Chapter 2

Lily made her way down the dark alleyway, walking a little slower than usual. A year ago she might've been nervous to come down this way alone at night, but now she was unconcerned. People knew not to bother her, around here. Funny how easily things could change.

It had been a month since the bombing. Things felt different since then, though Lily couldn’t tell if the whole city had shifted, or just her. She hadn’t even been that injured, just a concussion and some bruises, though she’d had to spend a night in the hospital so they could make sure nothing else major was going on. Marlene had had a worse time, she still had the cast from her broken arm. She’d been hiding it the whole time they’d been looking for Lily so she could stay at the scene, which was equal parts heartwarming and boneheaded.

None of this seemed to bother Marlene, but Lily chocked that up to Marlene being a native Gothamite, very much used to violent discord interrupting daily life. The rest of the city seemed to have forgotten about the bombing already.

This street, for example, looked exactly as it had the last time Lily had been here, about a week before the bomb. Broken streetlights, people smoking on corners, laughter and light muffled inside obscure buildings. Lily was headed for the one on the corner, the one she’d been frequenting almost since she moved here.

The Viper Club was a place you could only get into if you knew somebody. Thankfully, Lily knew just about everybody. She slipped in through the backdoor, and was immediately greeted with a couple of cheers and whoops.

"Doctors back!" someone yelled, and Lily rolled her eyes.

"I'm not a doctor, how many times—"

"Ah, shut up doc." a familiar voice said, and Lily turned around. A tall, handsome man with dark skin and close-cropped dark hair was standing behind her.

"Marcus!" she cried, delighted, hugging him. He laughed and hugged her back, pausing only to hold her at arm's length and give her a look over.  
"Where've you been, girl? We were getting worried about you."

"I got caught in a bit of a tight spot." Lily said, which on all technical terms was true.

"A tight spot, huh?" Marcus asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Those bombings last month." Lily admitted, "But I'm all good now, so."

Marcus's eyebrow inched ever-higher.

"Do you have people for me to patch up or not?" Lily said.

Marcus heaved a deep sigh, but waved her on to a back room. There was a kid sitting on a makeshift examining table, with a black eye, a cut on his forehead, and a very crooked, very bloody nose. He couldn't be more than sixteen, with coppery skin and jet black hair.

"Hey, doc." he said brightly.

"I'm not a doctor." Lily replied, automatically, but she was already glaring at Marcus, “No minors, huh?”

This was an unofficial rule that nobody bothered to follow and only Lily seemed to care about.

"I have no idea what you’re talking about, this young man is clearly 18." Marcus said, grinning. Marcus wasn't the owner of the club, not by a long shot, but he was the closest thing to an authority figure around here that Lily was willing to interact with. He was a fighter like the rest of them, but he'd been here the longest, won the most. The others respected him. Lily respected him too, most days. And on the days she didn't, she usually at least liked him.

"How old are you, 12?" Lily asked, starting to unpack the first aid kit she'd brought along with her.

"Aw c'mon. That’s just mean." The kid said, grinning. One of his teeth was missing, and Lily glared at Marcus again, who put his hands up in a sort of "sorry" gesture.

"What's your name?" Lily asked, putting on gloves and beginning to clean out the cut on his forehead.

"Diego."

"You need stitches, Diego."

"You can do that, right?" he asked, unconcerned.

Lily sighed.

"Diego, if I told you you should go to the hospital right now, what would you do?"

"Not go to the hospital." he answered promptly.

“You should go to the hospital.” Lily said. This was the second most commonly uttered sentence by Lily Evans in the Viper Club, the first being the eternally relevant and perpetually ignored "I'm not a doctor."

“I don’t wanna go to the hospital.”

"You guys get hit too much in the head." Lily said, pulling her stitches kit out.

"Why would he do that when we’ve got our own private practice right here?" Marcus interjected, grinning. Lily shot him a withering look.

"Whatever. One day I'll stop showing up here and then you'll all have to go."

This was an empty threat, and Lily knew it. If she stopped showing up here they still wouldn't show up to the hospital. They'd just patch each other up in the only ways they knew how, which would inevitably lead to infection and unset bones and very grim, very ugly scars that they didn't have to have. In short, a lot of pain that was easily preventable, if you knew how to prevent it.

"You did stop showing up here." Marcus pointed out, "For a record amount of time, too."

"I was in the hospital, which is where Diego should be right now." Lily said easily, beginning to stitch the kid's face back together. Stitches were not something paramedics were supposed to know how to do, but Lily had practiced on a lot of bananas once she realized this was something she was probably going to have to do more often than not.

"You know what they have in the hospital Diego? Local anesthesia. Your face could be numb right now. A medical miracle."

"Why were you in the hospital?" Diego asked, completely ignoring her other comments, and Lily winced as it shifted his forehead slightly.

"Diego, please don't move your face while I have a piece of metal in it."

"Sorry," Diego said, shifting his face again. Lily closed her eyes.

"Please. I am begging you."

Diego didn't say anything else, but Lily could tell Marcus was trying not to laugh.

"Thank you. I was in the hospital because that's where sane people go when they're injured."

"It's where rich people go when they're injured." Marcus corrected.

"Do I look rich to you?" Lily asked, irritated.

Marcus raised his eyebrows at her, but said nothing. Lily knew exactly what he was thinking. To Marcus, rich was anyone with a job. But she was fine with the abrupt end to the conversation, it was dangerously close to a topic Lily would very much like to avoid.

"Can I have a chair please." she added, because her legs were starting to get tired. They’d been weird since the bombing, getting numb at random times, and pins and needles out of nowhere.

"Sure." Marcus said, though she noticed his face lined slightly with concern.

The stool Marcus produced wasn't the most comfortable thing she had sat on, but she breathed a sigh of relief anyways when the weight was taken off her legs.

"You alright, doc?" Marcus asked, now fully frowning.

"I'm fine." she lied.

"You don't usually get tired that fast." he noted.

"I've had a long month." she replied, "Hand me the scissors, would you."

Marcus obliged, and Lily snipped off the end of the thread.

"I was really worried about you, you know." he said. Lily glanced over at him. He had an odd expression on his face.

"Really?" Lily asked, a little surprised. She knew she was well-liked around here, but her not showing up every once in a while wasn't usually a cause for concern. Marcus hesitated, glancing at Diego. Lily had a feeling he wouldn't say whatever he wanted to say until the kid wasn't in the room.

"Yeah." He finished lamely, and did not elaborate.

It took another half hour to finish up with the kid— there was nothing she could do about the tooth, but she did attempt to splint his nose in a way that wouldn't give it a permanently crooked look, which he might not care so much about now but would probably thank her later for.

"I'll be back next week to take out the stitches." Lily said, "No fighting until then."

"Aw, doc, come on." Diego said, disappointed.

"You probably have a concussion, so really you're getting off easy, but I'm done with you for now. Please stay in school."

This was Lily's third most uttered phrase, as she said it to every underaged patient who she patched up in some way or another. She doubted many of them took her advice, but she found it helpful for her own sanity to reiterate.  
Diego rolled his eyes, but thanked her all the same, and left to go show his stitches to his buddies. Lily rounded on Marcus as soon as Diego was out of the room.

"Why are you acting so weird?"

Marcus sighed, rubbing his forehead like he was trying to stave off a headache.

"People are going missing around here. I was worried you might be one of them."

"Missing?" Lily asked. Whatever she had been expecting, it wasn't that.

"What do you mean, missing?"

"I mean here one day, gone the next. Like they were wiped off the face of the earth."  
Lily hadn't noticed at first, but Marcus had deep circles under his eyes. He looked more stressed than Lily had ever seen him.

"Who?" she asked.

"Kenny. And that little one, Colin."

Kenny was a sweet kid, but he'd definitely gotten hit one too many times in the head. Colin was one of the youngest fighters at the club, a scrawny little thing who always lost.

"You sure they didn't just stop showing up?" Lily asked, peeling off her gloves and starting to pack up her things.

"That's what I thought at first." Marcus admitted, "That's what I hoped anyways, but nobody's seen them anywhere. Not at home, not at school, nowhere."

Lily didn't bother to ask if they'd called the police. Gotham PD was notoriously corrupt and useless, and Marcus mistrusted them more than most, which was saying something.

"What are you gonna do?" Lily asked. Marcus sighed.

"I don't know. One is weird, two might just be a coincidence... three there's no way something weird isn't going on, but thankfully you showed up tonight. For now I'll just keep a closer eye on everyone. S'all I can really do."  
This seemed like an impossible task to Lily, but she decided not to voice that out loud.

“I’ll try and come by more often.” She promised, knowing this was a pretty paltry offering. It was unfortunately all she had.

“Thanks.” Marcus said, “And I’m sorry about that comment earlier. It wasn’t fair.”

“Hm?”

“You know, about the hospital and everything.” Marcus said “I know those bills can’t be easy.”

“Oh.” Lily said. This could get awkward.

“I’ll manage.” she said.

“Really, if you’re having trouble with it we could help out. It wouldn’t be much, but everything helps, right?” Marcus said with a shrug. Lily suddenly felt a lump in her throat. The people here had practically nothing. For them to give her anything would be tremendous,

“I… god Marcus.”

“You do a lot for us. Let us do something for you.” Marcus said, but Lily was already shaking her head.

“I can’t take your money.” she said.

“Look, I know you have some moral qualms about what goes on here, but—”

“No, no, it’s not that.” Lily interrupted.

“Then what? Let us help.”

Lily bit her lip, looking up at Marcus. She had always been a terrible liar.

“The bill’s already paid off.” she said. Marcus frowned.

“By who?”

“James Potter.” she said, reluctantly. Marcus’ eyebrows shot upwards.

“Wait, you don’t mean—”

“Yeah.” Lily cut in.

“The rich asshole?” Marcus said, sounding unconvinced. Most of the lower ranks of Gotham held this opinion about Potter, or really any of the rich upper cut of Gotham society. Potter was more universally hated for flashing his money in everyone’s faces, throwing extravagant parties that cost more than a year of most people’s rent, and throwing himself at every model in town. His parents had been the opposite, universally beloved, and the funders of almost all of Gotham’s social programs. But all that had stopped when they died.

“The very same.” Lily confirmed. She could feel Marcus judging, and she just wanted this moment to be over. It’s not like she had asked for it. She hated him as much as anyone, probably more. But with Marcus it was always about the principle of the thing.

“Good.” he said finally, much to Lily’s surprise.

“Good?” she asked, unsure if he had heard correctly.

“Yeah. It’s about time he spent his money on something useful for a change.”  
Marcus’ expression was pretty flat, and Lily knew it was taking a lot out of him to be complementary towards anything Potter related.

“Yeah. I mean, at least I don’t have to worry about it, you know?”

“No, ‘course not.”

“And it’s not like this fixes him or something. It’s just a publicity stunt.”

Lily was definitely not going to bring up the corresponding party the injured first responders had been invited to.

“Yeah, totally.” Marcus said, nodding very hard.

The energy in the room was unbearably awkward.

“I should go.” Lily said, after the silence had gone on for far too long.

“Oh, right.” Marcus moved away from the door.

Marcus offered to walk Lily to the monorail, but Lily refused. She didn't want him to notice the fact that she wasn’t too steady on her feet, and anyways, people knew not to bother her around here.  
Well. Most people. She doubted the people who had disappeared Colin and Kenny would care that she played doctor at the club every once in a while.  
But they didn't even know if they had disappeared, much less if any person or persons were behind it.  
She was contemplating all this, limping along to the monorail stop when there was a light thump beside her. She turned and found herself face to face with the batman.

"Jesus fucking shit!" she yelled, stumbling over. He caught her arm deftly, keeping her from falling all the way over.

"Sorry." he said simply. He still had that modulator thing turned on, and his voice crackled with artificial static. He let go of her arm.

"Are you legally obligated to sneak up on people or something?" Lily asked. Her heart was still racing a mile a minute from the initial surprise.

"It is sort of my brand." he said. Lily stared at him.

"Is there any reason you're sneaking up on me in particular?" she asked finally.

"How're you doing?" he asked. So he remembered her.

"Fine. Are you stalking me or something?"

"I..." he trailed off. Those glass eyes were kind of freaky up close.

"I need your help." he admitted.

"You. Need my help? You're batman."

"That's sort of part of the problem." he said. It was hard to tell with the mask on, but Lily got the impression that this was uncomfortable for him. She wondered if he was always this awkward, or if this was a particularly embarrassing moment.

"Elaborate."

"People around here don't trust me."

Lily snorted. The batman stared. Lily's life was getting more absurd by the minute.

"Well, your whole vibe is sort of busting crime.” Lily said, “And most of these people make their livings doing illegal things."

"I don't care what they do as long as they're not hurting anyone. I'm trying to help them."

"Really?" Lily asked skeptically.

"Really."

He sounded sincere. Well, Lily thought so anyways. He mostly sounded like static.

"What about the fighting?" Lily asked, eyes narrowing slightly.

"I don’t like the institution." The bat said, "But I recognize people need to eat."

Surprisingly close to Lily's feelings about it, all things considered.

"How are you trying to help them?" she asked.

"People are going missing. I want to know why."

Lily frowned.

"You know about that?"

"You know about that?" the bat replied, surprise leaking through the voice modulation.

"I just found out tonight." Lily admitted. She didn't know why she was surprised the bat knew about it. She'd always figured all he did was run around chasing other weirdos intent on blowing stuff up.

"You sound surprised." He said.

"Isn't this a little bit... I don't know. Normal? For you?"

He looked at her for a long minute. Those eyes were really unnerving.

"You think people going missing is normal?" he asked finally.

"Not normal," Lily said, she could feel her cheeks heating with embarrassment, "Just like, don't you normally deal with other— other people like you?"

"Not really. They're kind of a distraction."

"From what?"

"From stuff like this. Stuff that matters."

When Lily had moved to Gotham, she hadn’t thought she would ever cross paths with it’s vigilante. Now she had twice in the course of a month, which was weird enough. But what Lily found weirdest of all was the fact that he actually seemed to care. And thinking back to Marcus’s tired eyes in the club, the hopeless way he’d said he’d keep an eye on everyone because that was all he could do— well, what if Lily could do more?

"What do I have to do?" she asked. The bat smiled. Lily immediately felt regret.

“I’ll find you when I need you.” the bat said. He pulled out an honest to god grappling hook from his belt, and looked like he was about to use it, but Lily said—

“Wait.”

He did, looking at her expectantly.

“You obviously know what I do at the club. Did you know who I was when you pulled me out of that building?”

“Yes.” he said, and then in the next instant he was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to put up chapter 2 right away because I like it more than chapter one hahaha. hope y'all enjoyed!


	3. Chapter 3

Lily hadn't really anticipated spending the majority of the party under the table, but that was exactly how it was going.

It's not that she usually hid under the table at parties. Usually Lily was great at parties.

Okay, great might be pushing it, but she could stomach parties most of the time. But this one was just something else. Maybe it was the sheer number of strangers, or the lack of hard liquor, but about ten minutes after Lily lost Marlene in the crowd, her brain had shut down, and she had sought shelter in it's closest available form: a table of snacks covered by a long white cloth.

So yeah. She was a toddler. Further demonstrated by the fact that she'd grabbed an entire platter of pigs in a blanket on her way down. So here she was, sitting under the table at the fanciest party she'd ever attended, eating mediocre little hot dog croissants and wishing she were anywhere else. Somewhere with better food, preferably, honestly what was even the point of being a billionaire if the food wasn't amazing all the time?

She hadn’t even really wanted to come, but Marlene had insisted. The chance to spot the elusive James Potter and schmooze with some of Gotham’s richer citizens had delighted her friend beyond measure. Lily supposed the party had the potential to be entertaining for everyone; they got to be heroes for a night for surviving the bombs in their paramedic uniforms, and the people who had paid for their exorbitant medical fees got to feel good about doing an act of charity. In theory it was a win-win, but Lily thought the whole concept was a bit macabre, especially considering some of their colleagues had not been so lucky as to make it out alive. But Lily seemed to be the only one present who felt this way. She supposed that was because everyone else who felt that way had stayed home, since they probably didn’t have celebrity-obsessed best friends who had dragged them along.

She wondered if Marlene was missing her. Although her friend had begged her incessantly to come with her, the answer was probably no. Marlene was a social butterfly and had the short-term memory of a goldfish; she probably hadn't even realized Lily wasn't next to her anymore. This was mostly Lily's fault, since Lily would've let Marlene do all the talking anyways, but Lily couldn't help but wish Marlene had not dragged her here in the first place.

Lily was just starting to wonder how she was going to extract herself from under the table when the time came when the tablecloth rustled. She froze. Then it lifted, and she found herself face to face with none other than James Potter.

Lily had never met James Potter before, but she was absolutely certain that that was who this man was. His face was plastered on enough tabloids and newspapers that she, and probably most of Gotham, could recognize him anywhere. Tousled black hair, dark brown eyes, those dorky round glasses that somehow managed to look endearing. He was, very unfortunately, quite gorgeous. Meanwhile Lily was sitting under a table with a half eaten platter of mini hot dogs. Not that she cared what he thought of her, since he was probably just a slimy prick like the rest of them. But still. Not her best look.

"Oh." James said, looking quite surprised to see her, which Lily really couldn't blame him for, "I uh, didn't expect this to be taken."

"It's not." Lily said, very aware of the fact that he was only half under the table, and therefore visible to whoever bothered to look their way.

"Oh. Good." he said, and climbed the rest of the way under and let the tablecloth fall behind him. Lily watched him with equal parts horror and relief.

"What are you doing here?" Lily asked. She was definitely staring at him in a very weird and creepy way, but it wasn't everyday a billionaire crawled under a table with you.

"I feel like I should be asking you that." James said, seeming not bothered by her staring.

"This is your party." Lily pointed out.

"Ah. True. Well, all the more reason to hide if you ask me. Could I have a hot dog?"

Lily silently handed him the tray, which he accepted eagerly.

"It's so hard to eat at these things, everyone wants to talk the whole time." He said, while tossing two pigs-in-a-blanket in his mouth. Lily just stared. She wasn't sure she remembered how to talk. James was chewing furiously, like he hadn't eaten in days.

"Ugh. Those are bad." James said, finally swallowing, and grabbing two more.

"Didn't you buy the food?" Lily asked. She felt like she was in a fever dream. No, correction: she felt like she was in one of Marlene's fever dreams. This was definitely something Marlene's celebrity crazed mind would come up with.

"Yeah, I guess I did. Didn't taste it beforehand though." James said, making a face as he grabbed yet another dog. Lily noticed he never talked with his mouth full. Rich-person habit, she guessed.

"Right." Lily said, because that seemed like the safest thing to say, "I'm just going to—" she motioned for the edge of the tablecloth, but James threw his arm out in front of her exit.

"Wait! They might see me. Just give me five more minutes, please."

As far as Lily could tell, his look of panic was genuine.

"Alright." She said, begrudgingly, leaning back against the wall, "But I want the hot dogs back."

"Fair enough." James said, looking relieved, and handing her back the tray. Lily took one, just for something to do. They really weren't that bad.

"You never told me what you were doing down here?"

He said it as if it were a question rather than a statement, like he wasn't sure he was allowed to ask.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Hiding? I mean that's what I'm doing, but I don't know who you would be hiding from."

"Yeah, because only rich popular people crave extracting themselves from social interaction." Lily said sarcastically.

"But you're allowed to leave. This is my party. They'll get mad at me if I leave." James said, grabbing yet another mini hot dog off the tray. Lily considered trying to stop him out of principle, but it seemed like more work than it was worth. Besides, he was the one who had to eat the stupid thing.

"I'm here with my friend and she won't want to leave, but if I look sad and pathetic and like I want to leave she'll leave with me." Lily explained.

"So you're hiding under the table to make sure she doesn't see how sad and pathetic you look so she can enjoy herself?" James asked.

"Pretty much." Lily said.

"I swear my parties are usually much more fun than this."

"Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, this is pretty lame." Lily said, popping another hot dog in her mouth.

"The food is better. And the drinks. And the general... vibe."

"The vibe?"

"Yeah, the vibe. This place is like a wake."

Lily wondered if he realized or cared that most of the people here knew someone who had recently died. Probably not.

"You should come to the next one." he continued, not reading Lily's expression, "I'll put you on the list."

"The list?"

"Yeah, the invite list."

"You don't know who I am." Lily pointed out.

"Oh. Right. We skipped the introduction part, I guess." James said, leaning back against the wall.

"I mean, I know who you are." Lily said. James waved a hand dismissively.

"Everyone knows who I am. Who are you?"

"I'm Lily." Lily said. James just looked at her politely, as if waiting for an elaboration.

"You paid for my medical bills." Lily continued.

"Oh!" James said, a flicker of recognition flashing across his face, "Sorry you were in the hospital."

"Thanks for paying for it, I guess." Lily said. She supposed she should probably sound more grateful, but the man had a billion dollars. What would have bankrupted Lily was nothing more than a drop in the bucket for him. This whole stupid party had probably cost more.

"Absolutely no trouble at all." James said with a wide smile. Ugh. Case in point.

The eccentric charm of James Potter was wearing off quickly. She felt like she was getting punked, and this was all being filmed as some sort of weird Potter Industries propaganda ad. See, billionaires will hide under the table at parties too! Very fun and quirky, just like us! Nevermind that doing just about anything else right now would be a better use of everyone's time and money.

"I'm gonna go." Lily said, and crawled out from under the table without waiting for a response. Thankfully nobody seemed to see her, because she hadn't bothered to check if the coast was clear before leaving. Honestly she didn't care if anyone saw her anymore, she just wanted to get out of here.

This entire party was stupid and ridiculous and a waste of time. She could’ve been down at the club helping people, and instead she was at this stupid billionaire circlejerk.

It was thankfully not difficult to find Marlene. She was, as usual, swamped with people. But as soon as she saw the look on Lily's face, she extracted herself from the group.

"What happened to you?" She asked, already leading them towards the exit.

"I'll explain on the train." Lily said. She glanced behind them, but didn't see James anywhere. Thank god. Maybe he was still under the table.

***

"I literally don't believe you." Marlene said, for what was probably the 6th time since Lily had begun speaking.

"Marlene, the whole point of the party is that he was there." Lily said. She wasn't annoyed, per say, but she was a bit tired. A lot tired.

"No, I know he was there, but there's no way he's weird enough to hide under a table the whole time. No offense."

"Fuck off. And it wasn't the whole time, he was there for like five minutes."

"It must have been someone else." Marlene insisted, "Someone who just looked like him."

"It was definitely him. He literally said 'everyone knows who I am'."

"What a prick!" Marlene exclaimed. She did not sound put off by the revelation at all. Rather, it seemed to delight her.

"Yeah. He was a jerk." Lily said with a sigh, letting herself slide down the train seat a bit.

"Of course he's a jerk, he has more money than god. I'm just surprised he didn't try and get in your pants."

"Marlene!" Lily threw her purse at her friend, who just laughed.

"I mean come on! You're hot, he's a player, it makes sense!"

"I was sitting under a table like a loser eating a plate of mini hot dogs. How is that hot?"

"Mm, yeah, I forgot about the hot dogs."

"He did invite me to another party." Lily said, if only to redeem herself for the hot dogs.

Marlene sat straight up.

"You have to go."

"What? No I don't." Lily said, slightly alarmed.

"You could go to his house! You could steal his toilet paper!"

"What is wrong with you?"

"Look, just because you hate the guy it doesn't mean you shouldn't get some fun out of him! And the TP would go on ebay for like a hundred bucks at least."

"You're being weird." Lily said, ignoring Marlene's eye roll, "He was probably just kidding anyways."

"Well what exactly did he say?"

"He asked for my name so he could put it on a list, or something. I don't know it was weird."

"That's too specific." Marlene insisted.

"It doesn't matter, I never want to see him again." Lily said, pointedly. Marlene pouted.

"You're no fun."

"Yeah, I'm aware."

  
***

  
Later that same evening, one James Potter was debriefing with his own friends.

"I can't believe you skimped on the food." Sirius said, "That's the only thing that makes those parties bearable."

Sirius was still half dressed from his own event that night. His untied tie was still around his neck and his shirt was unbuttoned halfway. His very expensive jacket was strewn haphazardly across the couch, where Sirius himself was sprawled across three sectional seats.

"All that and you're focused on the quality of the hot dogs?" Remus asked, not looking up from his work. He looked very disheveled as well, but in a very different way from Sirius. There were all sorts of notes and papers strewn across the coffee table and floor, three empty mugs that had once contained very strong coffee, and Remus himself had deep bags under his eyes. He had an exam the next day, and had been studying all night.

"Moony is right, the hot dogs aren't important." James said.

"Well then what? You met a girl, immediately fell in love and now she hates you? That's just a regular Saturday night for you."

"I didn't fall in love," James said, though he could feel his ears heating, "I just thought it was funny, you know with the table."

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Sure."

"Sounds like you two are made for each other. Being anti-social and all." Remus said, scribbling something down on his notepad and then immediately crossing it out. He picked up one of the enormous textbooks that were scattered about and flipped to a marked page. He clearly was not paying that close attention to the conversation at hand.

"Whatever. I don't even know why I tell you these things."

James really didn't know why he had brought Lily up to his friends. She was dangerously close to so many other things he would rather keep under wraps— namely his alter ego as a crime fighting bat. He had decided a long time ago it would be best to keep this from his friends, as frustrating as that might be. Although he trusted Sirius deeply, his friend was something of a gossip and tended to be followed around by the most salacious tabloids. Remus, while much better at keeping a secret, had enough stress in his life without knowing about James' extracurriculars. And if James wasn't going to tell those two, he certainly wasn't going to tell Peter, who was hardly ever around these days.

Under normal circumstances, James was quite good at keeping his two lives separate. But these circumstances were not what he would call normal. He had never had someone cross over between his two worlds so directly. It hadn't even been intentional on his part— the party had been planned mostly without him, and he didn't even know she was on the list. He felt compelled to tell his friends about Lily, if only so he could confirm to himself that it had actually happened.

"Because you want me to tell you how to get her to go out with you." Sirius said, totally oblivious to James' internal musings.

"I absolutely do not want that."

"What are you talking about, I'm amazing at getting girls."

At this, Remus snorted quite loudly.

"I am!" Sirius insisted.

"Your bone structure and money are amazing at getting girls. Your strategies are just along for the ride."

Sirius grinned.

"Did you just call me hot?"

"Fuck off."

Remus sounded bored, but James didn't miss his cheeks reddening slightly.

"Moony has a point." James interjected, before they started flirting incessantly, "But it doesn't matter because she hates me and I'm never going to see her again."

James privately knew that this wasn't entirely true. He would see her again, he just wouldn't be... well, him.

"She doesn't hate you."

"She stormed off from under a table. Do you know how hard that is to pull off?"

"You probably just freaked her out. You're a celebrity, it's weird."

"She didn't seem that freaked out at the beginning. Just surprised."

"See! I bet she would come to a party if you invited her." Sirius said. James didn't bother to point out that this was a completely illogical jump to make from the last point.

"Did you miss the part where she was hiding under a table to avoid the party I already invited her to?"

Sirius waved his hand dismissively.

"That's because this party was lame and depressing."

"Right. That was definitely the issue."

"Invite the friend, she's the only reason they both went to this one." Remus said, highlighting something in his textbook.

James and Sirius both stared at him.

"What?" Remus said, finally looking up from his studying.

"That's actually a good idea." Sirius said.

"Glad to be of service. Could you two shut up now? I have five more chapters to get through."

"Isn't that like coercion or something?" James asked, ignoring Remus's request.

"If it is, it's on the friend, not you." Sirius said matter of factly.

"That sounds wrong."

Remus set his book down and rubbed his forehead like he felt a migraine coming on.

"Seriously, can you two plan your Jay Gatsby fantasy somewhere else?"

"Alright, alright, don't get your knickers in a twist."

They left the living room, Sirius already starting to verbally plan a deeply extravagant event. All James could think about was seeing Lily again. As himself. Another party seemed like a recipe for disaster, but James had a few more ideas up his sleeve.


	4. Chapter 4

The day after the party, Lily made her way down to the Viper Club. Normally she came a few times a week, but she was beginning to accept the reality that walking and standing as much as these visits required was not something she could handle on a semi-regular basis. Her legs were still acting up, and at this point she was starting to worry it might be serious. Still, she had promised Diego she would be back to take out the stitches in a week, and it was time.

She was on edge on her way to the club, half expecting the batman to pop out of every shadow, but he didn't show. Lily hated that she was disappointed about that.

Things were steady at the club. Nobody else had vanished, mercifully, but Lily noticed more of the fighters on edge. Word must have gotten around. It was a relatively uneventful night otherwise; she took Diego's stitches out and put some more in someone else, but other than that she didn't have much to do. She left pleasantly early, with her legs only tingling a little bit. She had almost forgotten about the whole batman thing. If she trusted herself a little less. she might've written it off as a weird hallucination or dream.

Almost.

He appeared next to her on the walk home, in a different spot than the last. Lily flinched when she saw him, but didn't scream like she had the previous two times they had met. She had dignity to preserve, after all.

"You need my help?" Lily asked, trying to sound very cool and collected, and not like her heart was pounding out of her chest.

"Yes. But not here." the bat's modulated voice said.

"What do you mean, not— fuck!"

Before she could finish her sentence, the bat had grabbed her around the waist, and suddenly they were shooting upwards very quickly.

"What the fuck!" Lily yelled as soon as they had reached their destination (a nearby rooftop) and he had let go of her.

"Please be a little quieter." The bat said, glancing over his shoulder.

"You can't just grab people like that!" Lily said indignantly, though a little quieter.

"Sorry." The bat said. Lily could not tell for the life of her if he meant it or not.

"Just— ask next time, I don't know. Jesus."

"Are you done?" he asked. Lily would never get over how creepy and lifeless the mask made his face.

"For now." she decided, "What do you need?"

"There's a new drug going around. I think it could be connected."

"How so?"

"The venn diagram of people who would take this drug and the people who have disappeared is a circle."

"A little less cryptic, please."

"It's getting popular among the fighting crowd, as far as I can figure. Or it will be, anyways."

Lily bit her lip. The sad reality was that a lot of the fighters in the Viper Club took drugs, either recreationally or to boost their chances of winning. They weren't banned from the fights, not by a long shot. In fact, they were encouraged, because it made the whole affair more interesting.

"What does it do?"

"You take a swig, and it makes you invincible for half an hour."

Lily raised an eyebrow.

"Invincible?"

"It triples your strength, and your pain tolerance. Basically the same thing."

"And you drink it?"

This was unusual, and would make it more difficult for Lily to find out who was using. Injections left a mark, powder left traces. Pills were generally discrete, but you saw less of that with the fighters. But drinking... that was trickier. If she watched the fights, maybe it wouldn't be, but she made it a policy to not do that.

"It comes in a golden vial, like this," The bat held up what looked like a small, golden test tube, "and they call it felix felicis."

"Felix felicis? What kind of name is that?" Lily said.

"It's Latin."

"What does it mean?"

"Happy, happy."

He said this in such a deadpan tone, coupled by the equally deadpan modulation, that Lily had to laugh.

"This is serious." the bat said, but that just made Lily laugh harder. He sighed. This nearly brought Lily to tears.

"Are you done?" he asked, for the second time that evening, and Lily nodded, trying to stifle the last giggles in her sleeve. God, her life was absurd.

"I need you to find out who's using it, how popular it is. And find out if Kenny or Colin could have been using it before they disappeared."

"Didn't you say it's new?" Lily asked, frowning. Neither Kenny nor Colin had seemed like the type, considering they had lost almost every time. But maybe it was the fact that they were losing that made them a good target. After all, Lily hadn't seen them for a while before they disappeared.

"It's new to me." the bat corrected, "It could have been around for a while without me knowing."

"How likely is that?"

"Not very. But still possible. Can you figure that out?"

"I... I can try." she knew exactly who she could ask, but that didn't mean she wanted to have that conversation. Or any conversation with him involved.

"Good. Do you want me to take you down, or would you rather use the fire escape?"

"What the fuck do you think?"

"You said to ask first."

Lily stared at him, at a loss for words.

"Yeah. I guess I did." she said finally.

***  
A year ago, on this very same street, a very different Lily Evans walked to the monorail stop. She was nervous, twitchy. She'd only been in Gotham for a month, and it hadn't yet hardened her, made her tough and angry and tired. She was fresh meat, and the city couldn't wait to chew her up and spit her out.

She had only been walking that way by mistake, gotten off at the wrong stop and hadn't realized until she was three blocks into an unfamiliar part of town, one that was pretty unsavory for someone like the old Lily Evans. She was walking fast, trying to look like she knew where she was going, but all she was really doing was projecting an air of "please mug me!" She was close to the stop before she took a wrong turn. She almost missed the cry of pain coming from the alley down the way. She almost didn't go check on it either, because god only knows what went down around here. It could be a whole manner of unsavory things, things that Lily didn't really want to get in the middle of. It's not like she could stop any of it going on, and if someone was really in trouble, what the hell was she supposed to do? Call the police? The thought was laughable.

  
But if you can say one thing about Lily Evans, it's that sometimes she's a little too bold for her own good. So when she heard another cry, she faltered, turned around, and hesitantly inched her way up to the alley. She peered around the corner of a building. It was dimly lit, but she could see two figures, one writhing in pain, the other kneeling beside him.

  
Lily had seen plenty in her month as a Gotham paramedic. Lily had seen enough to understand why the turnaround rate for Gotham paramedics was so high compared to just about everywhere else. Back home it was all heart attacks, and grandmas who slipped over, and kids with broken arms. Here every call was a drug overdose, or a shooting, or someone getting stabbed. From what Lily had seen, this didn't look like a drug overdose (which almost was worse, because she had naloxone in her bag for precisely this purpose), and it didn't look like a shooting. She hadn't heard the gunshot anyways. But then one of the figures shifted into the light, and Lily could see blood. A lot of it.

  
She stood there, frozen, heart pounding. It was one thing to help people who had asked for it, from the comfort of her uniform and the back of an ambulance. It was another thing entirely to try and help someone in an alleyway who was covered in blood. What if she messed up? What if they died? What if she couldn't help them? Maybe she should just call 911 and be done with it, but then they might send the police— and whatever these people had done to get them into this situation, adding Gotham PD into the mix was not going to help. And even if they didn't who else would they send? A paramedic. Which Lily was.

  
If Lily didn't try and help this person, she decided, she was nothing but a coward, and she should have never moved here in the first place.  
This is all well and good to think, but it was quite another thing for Lily to force her feet to move. But eventually, she did. She stepped into the entrance of the alley, and cleared her throat. But before she could speak, one of the figures turned around and looked right at her.  
"What the fuck do you want?" He asked, and Lily's heart dropped all the way to her stomach.

  
"I— I can help." Lily said, and it sounded weak even to her.

  
"Just go away." The man said, turning back to his friend, who was still on the ground. He was moaning now, energy depleted too much for screams.

"No, I can help." Lily said, stronger now, pulling the first aid kit that she kept in her bag out. The guy looked back at her, irritated now, but Lily stood firm.

"If you keep using that shirt he's going to get an infection." She said. Now that she was closer she could tell the kid on the ground had some sort of cut on his chest, one that was losing a lot of blood. The other man was trying to keep it under control with a shirt, but it was already soaked in blood.

"What are you, a doctor or something?" the man asked. He still sounded annoyed, but Lily thought she could see his expression flickering, just for a second. He looked— well, he looked scared.

"Or something." Lily agreed.

The man stared at her for a second longer, but then his friend moaned again. He bit his lip. Then pulled the shirt away, and stood aside.

"He's all yours."  
Lily rushed to the ground, opening her kit and pulling on the disposable plastic gloves.

"What happened?" she asked, peeling away the shirt and wincing. The slash was long, and deep. It didn't look infected though, and that was good.

"Just fix him." The man said stubbornly, and Lily rolled her eyes. This sort of response was not uncommon in her line of work.

"I don't need details. Just a general idea of when and what." she pulled out disinfectant wipes as she did, wishing very much for a partner, or her full array of tools the ambulance offered her. That McKinnon girl was annoying, but she was quick and had steady hands, something Lily sorely needed right now. Her own were shaking fairly badly.

"An hour ago. Someone took a swipe at him."

"He's been like this for an hour?" Lily's panic doubled. The amount of blood he must have lost— not good. Not good at all. The friend didn't say anything.

"He needs to go to the hospital." Lily said, hesitating. The disinfectant was going to hurt like a bitch.

"Can you fix him or not?"

"He needs a blood transfusion and probably stitches, I can't—"

"Then just leave." The friend said, grimly, "He can't go to the hospital."

"I'm not leaving, he'll die if he doesnt get some help!"

"The stop talking to me and help him!"

Lily looked back down at her patient. Maybe it wasn't as dire as it looked. Maybe.

"This is gonna hurt like hell. You might want to hold his hand." She warned him, and started to disinfect the wound. He screamed.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry." Lily muttered, but she kept going, trying to ignore the yells and the quiet stream of encouragement from the friend, which was somehow worse.

"C'mon Jose, you'll be alright. You got this. It's just a little sting, c'mon."

It was much more than a little sting, and they all knew it.

It seemed like forever, but Lily managed to get it under control, she thought. Once it was cleaned it didn't look too bad, like maybe it didn't need stitches after all. But she wasn't totally sure. The problem with being a paramedic is that the only teach you enough to make sure the person makes it to the hospital. They were at the point where they should be at the hospital.

The best Lily could hope to do was pack it with gauze and pray that she was right.

So that was what she did. The bleeding had slowed in the time it had taken to disinfect so far, from a gush to a trickle, which Lily chose to take as a good sign. The gauze didn't soak through. It was as good as Lily could do.

"He should still go to the hospital." Lily said, leaning back and analysing her handiwork, and the patient. He looked woozy, but not like he was going to pass out.

"Is he gonna die overnight?"

"I—" Lily was taken aback by the bluntness of the statement, but the friend just looked at her, expectantly.

"I don't know. I don't think so."

The friend nodded, satisfied.

"Do you have somewhere to go?" Lily asked. She didn't really know what she would do if they said no, but she had to ask all the same.

"Yeah, we got somewhere." The friend said. Lily looked at him properly for the first time. He was tall and muscular, with dark skin and darker eyes. He looked to be around Lily's age, if not a little younger.

"His bandages will have to be changed. Tomorrow, and the next day at least. Probably for at least a week." Lily said,

"Can you do it?" the friend asked. Lily faltered.

"I— maybe. Probably."

The thought of coming back here, and doing this again instead of wiping the whole thing from her memory as soon as she was safely in her apartment wasn't what she had been planning. But if he really wasn't going to go to the hospital...

"Yeah. I can." she decided, "Just tell me where."

The friend smiled.

"You ever heard of the Viper Club?"

"No." Lily said.

"Come in through the back. They'll be waiting for you."

Lily almost didn't show up the next day— what if the kid had died overnight, and it was her fault because she hadn't called the ambulance? What if the wound was infected? What if after what if tumbled through her mind faster than she could dismiss them. But she shoved them all aside the next day, when she restocked her first aid kit with supplies she swiped from the back of the ambulance and found herself down at the same shady part of town as the night before, this time not accidentally. She found the Viper Club easily, and as instructed went around the back.

The back room of the club was crowded, mostly with men and boys, but there were a few women and girls around too. They were all lean and muscular, most were scarred, and more than a few had black eyes. They almost didn't notice Lily at first, and Lily thought of maybe making a break for it before they did, but before she could a deep booming voice yelled "doctor's here!" and the crowd parted to reveal the man from the night before.

"I— I'm not a doctor." Lily said lamely. She could feel her face reddening under the weight of so many stares.

"You fixed Jose up good enough." Someone said, and there was a murmur of agreement. Lily looked at the friend. His expression was unreadable, but Lily thought she might detect a hint of humor in there somewhere.

He led her to a back room, where there was a table covered with a white cloth that had seen better days. The kid from last night was sitting on it, looking, miraculously, healthy.

"You're... alright." Lily said, confused.

"You don't have to sound so disappointed." Jose said, grinning.

"I'm not, of course I'm not, you just... you lost so much blood..." Lily began to examine him, take his pulse and look at his wound site. All fine.

"The potions master paid him a visit last night." The friend said, as if this were an explanation.

"Am I supposed to know what that means?" Lily asked, glancing at the friend again. He just laughed.

"Man, you're really not from around here, huh?"

"No. I'm not." Lily said, starting to peel away the bandages from the night before. There was barely any blood on them at all.

"How is this possible." Lily said, incredulously.

"I'm a miracle man." Jose said, puffing out his chest.

"You're an idiot." His friend said. There was a note of affection in his voice.

"What is this place? Who are you people?" Lily asked, stepping back from the table. This was too much, too overwhelming. This was weird.

"I'm not sure you want to know the answer to those questions." the friend said, apologetically.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I do." Lily said back.

The man grinned.

"I'm Marcus. This is Jose. And you're in the Viper Club."

And that was how it all began.

***  
Lily had stopped talking to Severus a long while ago. But she hadn't deleted his number from her phone. There was always the odd emergency, she figured, and, if she was honest with herself, she wasn't ready to let him go. Despite what he'd done.

In the end, it was a good thing she hadn't gotten rid of his number. She could find the information out in other ways, but he was the best source she had. The most direct. The least likely to lie, at least to her.

They called him the potions master because he had a drug for everything. If anyone was going to know about Felix Felicis, it would be him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I missed an update last week! Life was and still is kind of crazy. Trying hard to keep to the monday night schedule!

Lily didn't particularly like working at the hospital. It was always loud and crowded and chaotic, and completely out of her control. Still, she found herself picking up shifts there more often than not. Understaffed and underfunded, the hospitals in Gotham would take just about anyone with any sort of medical knowledge to fill their ranks. Officially, Lily was an ER tech. Unofficially, well. 

Still, the money was nice, and it gave her a lot of extra practice. They were most desperate for warm bodies on weekends, which was how Lily found herself in the ER on a particularly dreary Saturday morning, just after shift change. It was mercifully quiet, or as quiet as an emergency room could ever be. Quiet enough that they had enough nurses and doctors to do what Lily normally would. 

That was alright though, as there was always plenty of paperwork to keep on top of. On a normal day, she might dread this task, but today she was all but looking forward to it. She was meeting with Severus tonight, and the thought made her stomach turn. Anything to keep her mind off their impending reunion was a win in her book. 

Well. Almost anything.

She almost thought she was hallucinating when she saw a tall, dark haired man with glasses walk down the hallway, seemingly without a single care in the world. He was talking to one of the doctors, laughing. Then, suddenly and quite terribly, he looked up and made eye contact with her.

Lily could tell immediately that he had recognized her just as she had recognized him. She scooped up a random assortment of papers and tried to make it seem like she wasn't making a run for it down the opposite hallway. Maybe he would ignore her. That would be the polite thing to do, and surely being raised miserably rich he would have had to go to etiquette classes or something. Lily had almost managed to convince herself that he would leave her alone when she heard footsteps catching up to her.

"Hey!" he said breathlessly, falling into step next to her.

"Do I know you?" Lily said, going for a last-ditch effort at feigning ignorance.

"Yeah, we met under a table last week, you gave me hot dogs." James said, totally unconcerned, "Lily Evans, right?" 

"What are you doing here?" Lily asked, dropping her files down on the edge of the nurses station with a little bit more vitriol than was probably warranted.

James was unperturbed.

"I work here." he said, smiling what he probably imagined was a charming smile. To Lily it just made his face look supremely punchable.

"You don't work here." Lily said, sitting down on one of several rolling chairs in the vicinity and grabbing the top file, flipping it open. The top of the folder hit the counter with a loud smack.

"How do you know?" James asked, leaning on the side of the station.

"Because you don't work." Lily replied, without looking up. She grabbed a pen and starting filling out the paperwork.

"I'm a CEO." James said. Lily was pleased to note that he sounded slightly wounded.

"We're in a hospital." Lily said. She was finding it very difficult to remember the pertinent information to fill out this form with James staring down at her.

"Right. Well, I guess I don't really work here." 

"Really?" Lily said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I mean, I do work here. But they don't pay me. So I guess that's not really work."

Lily looked up at him, exasperated.

"You're a volunteer?"

James grinned.

"That's the word!" 

"Lovely." Lily said flatly, "Shouldn't you be at your real job?"

James looked offended.

"It's Saturday."

"Don't most CEOs work like, all the time?" Lily asked, going back to her paperwork. James shrugged above her.

"Probably. But I'm a big believer in work-life balance."

"Right. So when you're not working you do more work. Makes sense."

"I thought we established this didn't count as me working."

"It doesn't. You just think it does."

"You're losing me, Evans." James said. He didn't look that upset about it.

"Can you just leave me alone?" Lily sighed, scribbling out a mistake she made on the form, "Annoying me doesn't count as volunteering."

"I could help you, that would be volunteering." James suggested.

"You can't help me, you don't know what you're doing. Didn't they tell you what to do?"

"I'm on my lunch break." he said easily. Lily scoffed.

"Yeah, you definitely don't work here."

"What's that supposed to mean?" James asked.

"If you were actually useful they wouldn't give you a lunch break."

James frowned. Little wrinkles formed between his eyebrows. 

"That's not legal."

"Well, it's either that or let somebody bleed out in the ER, so—"

"Why don't you hire more staff?" 

At this Lily just laughed.

"I'm serious." James said, and he did look it. Lily almost felt bad for him, he looked so concerned. 

"Even if we had the money for that, nobody wants to fucking work here. The pay sucks compared to other places, the benefits are trash, and you have to live in this sinkhole of a town."

James nodded seriously, considering. 

"So why do you work here?" 

Lily paused, blinked. Whatever follow up question she had been expecting, it wasn't that. 

"I need the money." She answered carefully, "And besides that they can use all the help they can get."

"How much can you actually do?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well you're not a nurse, right? You're a paramedic. Most paramedics don't work in hospitals."

He said this with a certain projection of confidence. 

"No. They don't. And I do what I can. More than I probably should, to be honest, but there's just not enough of us." 

"Hm." James said, brow furrowed in thought. Lily wondered if it hurt.

"Are you stalking me?" Lily asked. Lily could believe a lot of things, but the idea that it was simply a coincidence he had shown up at the exact same time as her shift was a little beyond that. 

"Why would I be stalking you?" James had an infuriating smirk on his face. 

"I don't know," Lily said, trying to maintain an aura of aloofness, but she could feel her face heating. 

"If you must know, I've been doing this since I was little. I used to go to work with my dad."

His expression had softened slightly, no longer a teasing grin, just a sad smile.

"I thought we established this wasn't work." Lily said, without thinking. James just laughed.

"He was a doctor, so he was actually working, unlike me." 

"I didn't know that." 

Lily was reminded of her transplant status in Gotham at odd, random times. 

"Oh yeah," James said, smiling in earnest now, "He was much more interested in being a doctor than running the company. He spent a lot of time here, it drove the board crazy."

"Here? At this hospital?" 

This information shouldn't necessarily surprise her, the hospital was so old it was practically falling apart, but Lily suddenly felt like she was standing somewhere monumental, somehow.

"Here and every other hospital in the city, practically." James said, seemingly unaware of Lily's internal restructuring of their surroundings, "He was working on a plan to make things more centralized. Wanted to make healthcare free for everyone in Gotham."

"Really?" 

"Yeah. But he died before he could see it all the way through." 

"Oh." Lily said, suddenly snapped back to reality. The Potter's grisly deaths had somehow slipped her mind during the conversation. You didn't need to be from Gotham to know about that.

"I'm sorry." She said. However aloof and untouchable James Potter appeared, something like that had to fuck you up for a long time. Especially since it seemed like James had actually been close with his dad.

"It's alright." James said with a half shrug, "It was a long time ago."

This was a lie that was all too familiar to Lily. She suddenly felt the horrible urge to tell him that her own parents were also dead, that it had also been horrible and traumatic and it was the whole reason she moved to this black hole of a city anyways. But then she came to her senses and remembered who she was talking to.

"Anyways, I've been trying to pick up where he left off." James said, finally filling the awkward silence Lily had left, "But it's hard. I don't know the system like he did." 

Lily looked up at James, really looked. Put away her dislike of him for a second. He looked younger somehow, and impossibly earnest. 

"So you are actually working." Lily said. James laughed, and Lily tried to not feel proud of that.

"Not as hard as you, so I'll let you get back to it."

Lily suddenly remembered she had a stack of unfinished paperwork sitting in front of her. 

"Thanks." She said, trying to recapture some of her annoyance from earlier in the conversation, to make it clear he had been nothing more than a distraction this entire time. It was not very convincing. Evidently James didn't think so either, because he grinned at her as he sauntered away.

"See you around, Evans!"

***

Lily shivered. It was freezing, the night air was cutting through her jacket like a knife. She wished Severus had picked a more practical spot to meet, but he had always preferred dramatics over practicality.

They were set to meet down by the docks, a little ways away from Lily's more familiar territory. That was intentional she knew, to make sure nobody was watching them. Lily wasn't sure why anyone would bother, but she didn't pretend to know what he was wrapped up in.

It was precisely what he was wrapped up in that made him useful to her now. The irony wasn't lost on her.

Lily shuddered again from the cold. She was leaning up against an old light post, which, like 85% of light posts in Gotham, was broken. She knew the metal was only sucking up what little warmth she had, but she'd been standing there for a while. Sev was late, which wasn't like him.

Just as she had this thought, something shifted in the shadows. She stood up a little straighter against the post.

"Sev?" 

He appeared as if he had melted out of the shadows. Lily had to stop herself from frowning. He looked terrible. Thinner even than he had been before, and paler too, if it was possible. His slick black hair was lank and unkept, framing his hollow face and only accentuating it's deepened features.

"Lily." he said. Even his voice sounded rough, like he'd had a deep cough.

"How are you?" she asked, internally cringing at her choice of pleasantry. Clearly, he wasn't doing so well. His expression didn't change.

"Fine. And you?"

"Alright." Lily said. 

They stood in silence for a few seconds, examining each other.

"I presume you called me for a reason." Severus said.

"Yeah." Lily said, mouth suddenly dry, "I need some information. I thought you might be able to help."

Was it Lily's imagination, or did she register a flash of disappointment across his face? He sighed, shoulders slumping forward slightly.

"Of course. What do you need to know?"

Lily swallowed heavily. She knew damn well Severus had shown up to this meeting hoping for one thing, but he would not be getting it from her, at least not tonight. Her forgiveness was a bit more expensive than scattered intel. But if she was going to get what she needed from him, she would have to let him believe it was on the table.

"There's a new drug getting popular with some of the kids at the club. I'm-- a little worried about it, I guess."

Severus frowned slightly. She could almost hear the cogs turning in his head, trying to figure out exactly why she had involved him, when he knew it would be a last resort for her. He knew it was more serious than she was letting on. 

"What's the drug?" he asked, carefully. Playing her game.

"Uh, it's gold, comes in a little vial," Lily said, desperately searching his face for a sign of recognition. He didn't give one. 

"I think it's called felix, something. Felix felicis." 

As soon as the words escaped her lips, she knew she had him. His entire demeanor shifted; jaw tightened, shoulders stiffened. 

"I don't know anything about that." He said shortly. It was an unconvincing performance, and they both knew it.

"Really." Lily said, dropping the act and letting a little bit of judgment seep into her tone. 

"Don't mess with things you don't understand, Lily." Severus said. He sounded angry, but Lily could have sworn there was an edge of fear in his words.

"I'm not! I'm just worried—"

"You're always worried!" Severus said, throwing his hands up in exasperation, "Always worried about that damn club and those little street rats—"

"They're just kids!" She yelled back, properly angry now. He was such a fucking jackass, she didn't know why she had ever bothered.

"They're using you! You could never see that they're just using you all along! They're never going to change, Lily, and you can patch them up all you want, but you're never going to fix them!"

Lily stared at him like he had just punched her in the gut. Severus seemed to realize that he had, once again, fucked up.

"That's not what I meant." He said, running a hand through his limp hair.

"That's exactly what you meant." Lily said, shoving her shaking hands into her coat pockets and turning to leave. 

"Wait!" Severus said, and it sounded so desperate Lily actually paused. 

"I can't tell you much about felix." He said, lowering his voice to an almost comical level, "But I can tell you to stay away from it. It's dangerous. Whatever you're up to Lily, you have to stop." 

"I'm not up to anything." she said. Unconvincingly.

"I'm serious, Lily. This could get you killed." 

He looked deadly serious. And beyond that, scared. Whether or not this was necessarily true, he certainly seemed to believe it. 

"How deep are you in this?" Lily asked. She had only expected a little beyond passing knowledge of the drug from Severus. Not... whatever this was. Severus ignored her question, just as she knew he would.

"Don't ask anyone else about felix. If they know anything, they won't be as kind as me." 

With that final, ominous, warning, Severus faded into the night, leaving Lily feeling exceptionally alone.

  
  



	6. Chapter 6

It was a rare night when both Marlene and Lily were home together in their little shoebox apartment. Marlene liked picking up extra night shifts, which suited Lily just fine. It was a lot easier to sneak in and out without Marlene knowing when she just wasn't there. But Marlene had taken the night off, and Lily decided she would too. If she was honest, she was still a little shaken from her meeting with Severus. She wasn't exactly dying to go back into that part of town.

Marlene took the opportunity to declare a “girls night!” which, as Lily pointed out, was no different than any other night they spent together. Marlene insisted the label counted for something, though, and Lily was happy enough to oblige. Between the club troubles and hospital shifts, she had hardly seen her friend outside of work, despite them living together.

Pizza was ordered, popcorn popped, the TV turned on to a random chick-flick neither of them were very invested in. This was just as well, because Marlene would talk over whatever they were watching. Lily both loved and hated this about her, depending on her mood. Tonight though, she liked it very much. It was comforting to hear about normal things, like which coworker was sleeping with who, and which nurse had flirted with Marlene while she was wheeling that allergy guy into the hospital, and what celebrity had recently been caught with particularly bad paparazzi photos. Much better than the thoughts that had been occupying Lily's brainscape lately, which mostly consisted of drugs, missing people, and the look on Severus's face when he told her she was in danger. 

And, if she were honest with herself, which she did not really like to be, her conversation with James Potter. Lily tried to avoid thinking about this conversation more than anything else, despite the fact that it involved significantly lower stakes. She didn't understand why it made her almost as nervous to think about as her meeting with Sev. 

Lily had not yet told Marlene about her second encounter with James Potter since it had occurred a few days ago. She wasn't exactly sure why— she knew it would absolutely make Marlene's week. And it really wasn't that big of a deal. Lily did not expect to see him again. It was just a freak thing. Unless it wasn't. Both options made her feel nervous, which she did not like at all.

Still, tonight was an ideal night to spill the beans. So Lily waited for a lull in Marlene's recount of a CelebrityLiving article about Celestina Warbeck's alleged affair to say,

"You'll never believe who I saw at work the other day."

"Who?" Marlene asked, head snapping up as she sensed fresh gossip, like a shark smelling blood in the water. Lily could not help but grin.

"Guess." Lily said. She knew this was torture for her friend, but she could not resist. It was simply too easy.

"Ugh, you're cruel." Marlene groaned, "Was it Davey Gudgeon, I haven't seen him since he poked his eye out."

"Better than Davey." Lily said, taking another slice of pizza and nibbling at the tip.

"Well, that's not too hard, he's old news. Was it Avery? He's been MIA lately, I'm starting to worry he's dead."

"Nope." Lily said, popping the p. 

"I give up." Marlene said quickly.

"James Potter." Lily said, taking another bite of pizza. Marlene, however, jumped up from her seat in such a rush that she knocked over the coffee table.

"Crap!" Lily yelled on instinct, pulling her legs up as pizza and popcorn spilled everywhere.

"You saw James Potter again?!" Marlene all but shouted at her, completely ignoring the overturned table.

"Yes! Christ, don't throw a fit!" 

Lily had expected Marlene to be excited, but she wasn't expecting this. Marlene looked possessed. Lily shrunk into her corner of the couch.

"And you waited until now to tell me!" She yelled.

"Calm down, it's not that big a deal!" 

"Not that big a deal— Jesus  _ Christ _ Evans! He's like the most famous person in this whole city!" 

"I mean, I guess?"

"What the hell was he doing at the hospital!" Realization struck Marlene's face "Oh my god, did you just do a HIPPA violation—"

"No, no, he wasn't a patient. He was just there." Lily reassured her. Marlene seemed to relax some, though whether this was from relief that James Potter was uninjured or relief that Lily had not broken the law to give Marlene some hot gossip was unclear. 

"Who just hangs out at a hospital?" Marlene asked, finally sitting back down on the couch, ignoring the mess in front of them. Lily opted to ignore it as well.

"He was volunteering." Lily said. Marlene snorted.

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly. But he said that—"

"Hang on." Marlene interrupted, "He  _ said _ ? You actually talked to him? This wasn't just a sighting?" 

"A sighting? What is this, Planet Earth? He's not a cheetah."

"Answer the question Lily!"

"Okay, okay! Yeah, we talked. For like 20 minutes."

Marlene shut her eyes, putting her palms over her forehead like she was warding off a headache. Lily took the opportunity to apprehensively take another bite of pizza.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Lily asked, mouth still slightly full.

"It's taking everything in me not to strangle you right now." Marlene said, "I cannot believe you kept this from me for days!"

"It just didn't come up!" Lily protested, though she knew this was a weak excuse.

"You are the worst. I cannot believe you're my best friend." Marlene moaned. 

"Sorry!" Lily said. She did mean it, though she still didn't think the situation called for this much gravity. 

"You have to give me a word for word account of your conversation this  _ instant _ ."

Lily did her best to fill Marlene in on everything that had happened, though it was somewhat abridged.

"...and then he said he's trying to finish his dad's healthcare plan. Then he left." Lily finished. 

Marlene had been listening with such rapt attention, Lily was convinced she was going to start taking notes. She was quiet for a good 30 seconds after Lily was done, digesting.

"That is bizarre." she finally said.

"Yeah." Lily said, picking up a piece of popcorn that had been flung onto the couch and popping it in her mouth.

"No, but like. Why haven't I heard anything about this? His dad's plan, I mean." Marlene asked. She looked genuinely puzzled.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why wouldn't he be shouting this from the rooftops? It's like the best PR in the world. And I work in healthcare and read every stupid celebrity tabloid known to man, I am the perfect demographic to know this information, and I don't."

"I don't know. Maybe he's just waiting until it's done?" Lily suggested.

Marlene was already shaking her head.

"No. Rich people love taking credit for things they haven't even done yet."

"Maybe he was lying?" The thought made Lily's stomach turn. How had she swallowed that so easily? He had seemed so earnest she had not even thought twice about it. 

"I don't know." Marlene said, frowning "Did he sound like he was lying?"

"I— I mean, I don't think so."

Marlene's frown deepened. 

"Hold on." She said, disappearing from the room, and returning a minute later with her computer. 

"Look," she said, turning the screen to face Lily after a minute of furious typing, "The Potter Industries website. Look what's missing."

"Uhh..." Lily said, trying to process the gauzy corporate webpage, "I don't know?"

"No professional bios. Not for Potter anyways, they've got everyone else." Marlene said, turning the screen back towards her and typing away again.

"Maybe he doesn't have enough professional information for a bio." Lily suggested. The thought was somewhat vindicating.

"Yeah, but he's the CEO, it's like they don't even want him to exist." Marlene said, not looking up from the computer. 

"Well, he doesn't exactly have a stellar reputation, does he." Lily said. 

"No, he has a terrible reputation. A uniquely terrible reputation."

"So? He's a rich asshole. That’s not a revelation."

"But what if he's not, though?" Marlene asked. Lily gave her a strange look. 

"An asshole, I mean, he's clearly rich." Marlene clarified. 

"He's an a—" Lily started, but then paused. Was he? In the two conversations Lily had had with James, he had, at least on a surface level, been pleasant. Maybe superficially so for some of it, but some of it had felt real. At least, she thought it had. 

"See, you can't even say it, and you hate the man." Marlene said.

"I'm very confused as to what you're getting at." Lily said.

"In the entire time you've been in Gotham, have you heard a single positive thing about him? From anybody?"

Lily did not even have to think about it. She shook her head no.

"Me either, and I've been here my whole life." Marlene said.

"So?" Lily asked.

"So, I'm looking it up right now, and I can't find a single nice piece of press about James Potter. Not one puff piece about him adopting a dog, or volunteering at the hospital, or going for a run. There's nothing about him paying our hospital bills, even."

"Nothing?" Lily asked, frowning. She had just assumed he would make a big deal about that one, but she hadn't bothered to look it up. 

"Nothing. Sometimes the company will come up, but never his name. Look."

Lily looked at the screen, which was filled with headlines about James Potter. James Potter seen leaving club with two models. James Potter and his extravagant weekend bash. James Potter gets drunk at high-end restaurant. But for the the first time Lily found that the James Potter in her head and the James Potter in those headlines conflicted. 

"But... why?" She asked.

"I don't know, it makes no sense." Marlene said, shutting her laptop in frustration, "I mean every rich family here has a PR team— The Blacks, The Malfoys, The Lestranges, they all get bad press, but they'll throw something at the tabloids every once in a while to look less like monsters. Real journalists will even suck up to them sometimes. And Potter has more to brag about than most of them, from what we know, and he’s only feeding them the bad stuff."

"Are you saying he's giving  _ himself _ bad press?" Lily asked, incredulous. Marlene gave an erratic shrug.

"Maybe? I can't see how this would happen by chance, it's like his image is curated specifically to be terrible."

Lily sat back on the couch, feeling unsettled. Their theory didn't make any sense, though Lily, almost intrinsically, felt it to be true. He was a little stuck up, maybe a bit flashy, and certainly a bit odd. But he hadn't been rude, or cruel, like everyone seemed to think he would be. He could have easily been on both occasions, and maybe he was just trying to get in her pants like Marlene had suggested after their first meeting, but when he was talking about his father he had seemed genuine. And who talks about their dead parents when they're trying to flirt, anyways?

But wouldn't be more useful from just about every angle to have public goodwill? Certainly his image wasn't doing Potter Industries any favors, and he was so universally reviled by the lay people of Gotham that Lily wouldn't be surprised if someone legitimately tried to kill him. Whatever was motivating him to do this had to be worth all that. It had to be big.

"He has to be covering something up." Lily decided, out loud. Marlene gave her a skeptical look.

"Like what?" 

"I don't know, but it all reads as a sort of distraction, doesn't it?" 

"Maybe. Clearly nobody knows what he's really up to, or we'd have heard about the hospital plan already. But it doesn't make sense to distract from that."

"No," Lily agreed, "It's something else."

What exactly it was though, neither of them could figure. Lily could not stop thinking about it throughout the rest of the movie, during which Marlene was uncharacteristically quiet. Lily knew she was also racking her brain for the answer, but they both came up short. 

"Maybe he killed somebody." Marlene suggested half-heartedly, as they cleaned up the remaining mess from the coffee table tip-over after the movie had finished. 

"That doesn't make sense." Lily said, surveying the scene. They would have to vacuum tomorrow, but it was way too late to do that now. Their downstairs neighbors probably already wanted to kill them from the noise they'd made earlier.

"Well, it's all I've got." Marlene sighed, throwing the empty pizza box in the trash. 

It was the best guess either of them had before reluctantly retiring to bed. Lily lay awake, unable to shut her mind down enough to sleep. She was just starting to convince herself that they had made it all up and were overreacting, when she realized this was the first time in weeks she had been able to think of anything other than the missing people down at the Viper. 

She groaned to herself, frustrated. She should be focused on that, not this stupid Potter stuff. It was just a distraction, taking time and energy away from the things that actually mattered. She still knew next to nothing about Felix, she would have to work on that tomorrow night, before the Bat caught up to her again. 

Lily wondered idly how Marlene would react to Lily telling her she was working with Batman. She never would tell her, of course, but she found it difficult to even imagine the scenario playing out. It was like the Lily who did that sort of thing and the Lily who lived and worked with Marlene McKinnon were two completely different people. 

That thought was vaguely troubling, but Lily did not want to explore it deeper. She let herself drift off into a restless sleep instead. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading as always! Sorry this chapter is a bit short, the scene ran longer than I expected and it didn't make sense to add everything else I was going to add in the same chapter. So I might do another update on Wednesday if I have time!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I never ended up updating on Wednesday last week, I ended up being too busy. But this chapter is a bit longer so hopefully it makes up for it!

Lily had never once been so nervous to go to the club as she was tonight. Not even that first time, when she was half-convinced she'd be met with a dead man of her own making. 

Sev had been a dead end, and though she hadn't been expecting it, she wasn't entirely surprised. He'd always been cagey, and she should have suspected he would be involved somehow. Lily supposed she had just thought better of him, but clearly that had been a mistake. It was exactly his wheelhouse, and he'd proved to her before that he couldn't be trusted. 

Unfortunately, this meant that Lily was going to have to get her hands dirty, and she was dreading it.

Plan B had been floating around in the back of her mind since that night, and she despised it. Still, as the day slipped away and the night crept ever-closer, Lily had to accept that if she really wanted to get answers, she was going to put it into action. It was too dangerous to just go asking around, if word got out she was asking questions, that would be bad news. Severus had made that clear enough. She was going to have to go in with a more targeted approach. Which meant doing the one thing Lily had always promised herself she would never do: watch the fights.

She could see no way around it. Felix was untraceable otherwise, there would be no way to know who would have answers and who wouldn't if she couldn't see it in action. She had waffled around with just asking Marcus, but she didn't know if he would give her a straight answer, if he would know anything at all. If he didn't, she wouldn't be able to ask anyone else without suspicion. But if she watched a fight or two... she might be able to find someone willing to talk.

This was easier said than done. Lily sighed as she stared herself down in the mirror, trying to discern if she looked recognizable. She felt exceedingly stupid wearing her old reading glasses from high school, a baggier coat than usual, and her hood over a dark hat to hide her hair. It was a pitiful disguise, but Lily wasn't sure what else to do. She didn't think anyone would recognize her— she never interacted with the front of house, and the fighters would be occupied. She just needed to draw as little attention to herself as possible. 

Lily stalled until she could stall no more, finally setting off to leave when the sun began to sink below the horizon. Marlene was working the night shift, so thankfully she didn't have to come up with a lame excuse for her absence. 

The city felt different tonight, or maybe it was just Lily. It was a little colder, a little sharper. People looked harder at her as she passed by. The darkness seemed to encroach on the few streetlights that weren't broken. Soon, all too soon, Lily was walking the familiar path to the club. Instead of taking the back alley, like she always did, she took the main road to the front door.

Lily hesitated, wondering if maybe it would be easier to sneak in through the back. But she would surely be recognized, and questions would be asked. No, she would have to go through the front.

It was easier than she expected to get inside, she just waited in line with the rest of the evening crowd and paid her fee to the bouncer, who mercifully did not recognize her. She stepped inside. It looked like any other grungy bar, aside from the random snake detailing that lined some of the walls. It was poorly lit, probably to hide how grimy it was. Lily knew that this was just the disguise, the outermost layer. The illegal activities would be a step or two deeper.

She sat down at the bar and ordered a drink. The seats were green vinyl, and peeling at the edges. She wasn't exactly sure how she would make it to the actual ring, but she had a feeling it wouldn't be too difficult to parse out. Maybe if people actually cared it would be harder, but the cops were crooked enough to let it slide as long as there was a thin veneer of legality around the place and a cut of the profits at the end of the month. 

Sure enough, after 10 minutes of casual observation, Lily noted a steady stream of people headed to the back corner, disappearing as they went. Lily slid off the stool, leaving her drink half full, making her way as surreptitiously as possible to the back. It was less hidden than even she had expected, just a thick green hanging in a doorway. Lily slipped through, and entered a different world. 

It was larger than she had expected, and more crowded. The ring took center stage, a large square in the center of the room lined with chain-linked fence. The floor was some sort of mat material that had probably once been white. Lily tried not to notice the spots of blood. There were no seats, just crowds of standing people, tighter nearest to the ring, fanning out at the edges. Mostly men, but some women too. The crowd was rowdy, probably because the ring was empty, though Lily knew it wouldn't stay that way for long. 

Sure enough, as soon as the thought had crossed Lily's mind, the door to the back room opened and two fighters exited. Lily didn't recognize them, but that wasn't uncommon. A lot of people passed through the club at one point or another, and not all of them stayed long enough for Lily to learn their face. She preferred it that way. It would certainly make watching this easier. 

There was an announcer, but Lily could barely hear him over the jeering crowd, which had lit up considerably. A disheveled man was walking around taking bets. Lily tried to tune out as much as possible, just focusing on the task at hand. Find someone, anyone, who was taking Felix Felicis. 

Unfortunately, this was easier said than done.

The fighters entered the ring, the announcer rang the bell, and the fight began.

It was brutal.

Lily should have known what to expect, she'd seen the aftermath of enough fights. She'd been mentally preparing herself for this all day. But however awful it was in her imagination, the reality was much, much worse. There were no gloves, they barely bothered to wrap their hands. Fists slammed into bodies with reckless abandon. Blood was spilt in the first 30 seconds, Lily thought from a busted lip, though she couldn't be sure. All she knew is she saw it splattering down to the ground, joining thousands of other little red droplets that had since dried into a dark, muddy brown. 

The first fight was mercifully short. One fighter was bigger than the other, and had him pinned within a minute. This seemed to satisfy the crowd, or perhaps enrage it. The spectators rattled the chain link fencing around the arena, cheering and booing in equal measure. The winner raised his bloody fist in triumph, and the room went crazy, stomping and screaming and rattling. 

A break, maybe 10 minutes, and then it started again. 

Lily squinted her way through most of the one, trying very hard not to think of concussions and bruises and broken noses. It didn't look like any of them were using more strength and stamina than they should be, though admittedly Lily's knowledge of such things was limited at best. Still, she didn't think it worth it to approach either of them. 

Lily was getting ready to call it quits after three. She'd never had a weak stomach, but she did feel a bit ill after all this. But before she could make her way to the curtained doorway, the next set of fighters came out. The pairing was odd enough to give Lily pause.

They were both women, one very large and stocky, the other quite lithe. The smaller woman was at least five inches shorter than the other, and much skinnier. She had some muscle, but not nearly as much size as the other woman. She wore only a sports bra and shorts, leaving her thin frame exposed. She did not look nervous in the slightest.

It was a completely unfair fight, and everyone in the place knew it. The crowd jeered and whistled as the two fighters entered the ring. The energy felt much more hostile than when the fighters were men, but it didn't seem to phase the women at all. Lily supposed they were used to it. 

The bell rang, and the fight began. Predictably, the smaller woman took to the defensive, mostly dodging the larger fighter's attacks. When she finally did get a hit in, right on the shoulder, it sent the smaller woman stumbling back a few paces from the force of it. But then she stumbled right back up to her opponent and slammed her in the chest. The larger woman flew back, crashing up against the fence.

Lily knew at once that something unnatural had occurred. There was no way the force of that punch should have been hard enough to even phase the other fighter, much less blow her backwards a foot and a half. The crowd seemed to either not notice or not care, they cheered all the same. The larger fighter seemed shocked. She went back in for a punch, but the smaller one parried and hit her again, and again, and again. Each time the blow landed harder and faster than it should have, until soon the larger fighter was pinned on the ground, and the smaller one was standing over her, impossibly the winner of the fight. 

Lily left right after that, right through the curtain and out the front of the bar and to the back alley. Lily could feel her heart pounding in her ears, leftover adrenaline from the fight coursing through her veins. She'd found someone, she was sure of it. She waited in the shadows, watching people come and go out the backdoor, hoping, praying she would see the girl before she left. The night grew darker and colder, and Lily wished for her regular coat. It was so much warmer.

About an hour later, give or take, Lily's patience was rewarded. She saw the smaller woman slip out the back door, and head the opposite way down the now-empty alley. Lily jogged after her.

"Hey!" she called out. The woman turned around to look at her.

"Look, whatever you're selling, I'm not in the mood." She said, looking back around and continuing her walk down the alleyway.

"Wait—" Lily said breathlessly, catching up beside her and matching her pace, "I just want to talk to you." 

The woman sighed, irritated, and glanced at Lily sideways. Then she frowned, looked at her again.

"You're the doctor."

"Yeah." Lily said, not bothering to correct her over semantics. 

"What do you want?" The woman said, slowing her walk to a halt. 

"I—" Lily faltered. She had planned a million and a half ways to word this, but now that she was face to face with an actual human to talk to about it, her mind felt blank.

"I saw you tonight." She said, deciding to just be honest about it, "What you did... that's not possible."

"Well, I did it." The woman said, starting to walk again. Lily followed after her, having to take two steps for every long stride.

"Not without help though." Lily said. The woman glared at her sideways. She did not slow down.

"What are you saying?"

"Did you use Felix Felicis tonight?" 

The woman stopped dead in her tracks, so suddenly that Lily ended up a pace or two ahead of her.

"How do you know about that?" the woman asked, in a hushed whisper. 

"Nevermind how I know." Lily said, also whispering, though it felt a bit silly to, "Look, I'm not trying to judge you, I just want to know a few things." 

"No you don't. Believe me." the woman said, beginning her walk yet again, a bit slower this time. She looked incredibly tired, and Lily couldn't blame her.

"Yes I do," Lily insisted.

"I'm not supposed to talk about it. None of us are." 

"How many is 'us'?"

"Look, it doesn't matter to you, so why don't you quit... quit it." The woman faltered slightly, her words slurred at the end just a tad. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, painfully almost.

"Are you alright?" Lily asked, just before her knees gave out and she fell to the ground. 

Lily broke her fall, leading her to the ground as gently as she could, but the woman was taller than her and it was not an easy task. As far as Lily could tell, she was knocked out cold. 

"Christ." Lily said quietly to herself. Before she could even start to try and wake her, the woman stirred beneath her.

"I'm... fuck." The woman muttered, starting to sit up. Lily propped her against the closest wall. She grabbed her wrist, took her pulse with her fingers. It was thready, but there.

"Can you open your eyes?" Lily asked, digging around in her bag for a flashlight. 

"Mm." the woman said, rubbing her face with her hands. 

"What's your name?" Lily asked. Where the hell was that stupid light?

"Mary. MacDonald." 

"Alright Mary. Can you tell me where we are?" 

"Some shithole backstreet." Mary said, words still slurred, "God, my head."

"Do you know what year it is?"

Mary glared at her through her hands.

"Of course I fucking know what year it is."

"Alright, no need to bite my head off, it's just for cognition." Lily said, giving up on the flashlight and opting to check Mary's pulse again. It was already much stronger than before. 

"Sorry." Mary muttered, leaning her head back against the wall.

"It's alright." Lily said, agreeably.

"What happened?" Mary asked. Her voice seemed steadier too, words no longer blending together in the middle.

"We were talking and you just collapsed. You were only out for a second or two."

"Fucking hell." Mary said, rubbing her eyes again.

"Has this happened before?" Lily asked. She didn't mean to be suspicious, but Mary's tone was less of surprise and more of resignation.

"No." Mary said plainly, "Well, not really." 

"Not really?"

"I've been getting these tired spells. Have to sit down for a minute or two. But I've never..." 

"Never passed out before?" Lily asked. Mary nodded. A horrible thought wormed it's way into Lily's head.

"Does this happen after you take the drug?"

Mary gave her a sharp look that all but confirmed the answer to Lily's question.

"That's none of your business." she said.

"But I'm right, aren't I?"

The two women stared at each other, neither letting down for a long minute. Finally Mary looked away.

"Yeah. You are."

"How long have you been taking it?" Lily asked quickly, ready to ride this sudden burst of honesty as long as it would take her.

"A month, just about."

"Is that how long Felix has been around?"

Mary shook her head.

"No. It's been at least twice that, I think, maybe a bit more."

"A month before Kenny and Colin disappeared?" Lily asked, cold realization sinking into her gut. Mary just nodded. 

"Fuck." Lily muttered, mostly to herself. 

"What?" Mary asked, still holding her head in one hand.

"Are you the only one on Felix right now?"

"I can't tell you—"

"Have you been on it the longest?" 

This question caught Mary by surprise.

"I— maybe?"

"Stop taking Felix, right away." Lily ordered, "And stay home for the next few days if you can. Can you stand?" 

"I think so, but why—" She was interrupted by Lily offering her a hand to help her up, which she took reluctantly. Mary looked steady enough on her feet to walk, so that's what they did.

"I think you were supposed to be next." Lily explained, voice low, "I think, maybe... maybe the passing out is intentional. Maybe it's the intention."

Mary's eyes widened in understanding.

"You mean—  _ tonight _ ?"

"Maybe, I don't know, it's all a guess." Lily said hurriedly, "But it would make sense."

"So if you hadn't been here—" Mary started, but Lily cut her off.

"Maybe. Maybe. I really don't know."

Lily felt edgier by the minute, like at every street corner someone was going to jump out and grab them both. It was a ludicrous thought, except that it might have been true earlier this evening, at least for Mary. Had Lily's presence really complicated matters enough? Would they just give up, or would they see the thing through? Were they even there at all, or was Lily simply suffering from an over-active imagination?

Mary's apartment was close by, thankfully, and it only took ten minutes of walking at the fastest pace they could handle to reach it. She paused by the front door, turning back to Lily.

"You can come in. Stay the night." 

Lily was already shaking her head. 

"I have to get home."

"You sure?" 

"Yeah. I'll be fine." 

Lily tried to project as much confidence as she could into her words, and she wasn't sure how much of it actually bled through. She did feel sure that they really wanted Mary, but she wasn't entirely convinced she herself wouldn't be a suitable consolation prize. 

"Thank you." Mary said, after a long pause. 

"Just stop taking felix, please." Lily said, "And tell whoever else you know is taking it to stop too."

"Should I tell them about... the other stuff?" Mary asked, uncertainly. 

Lily shook her head. 

"I wouldn't advertise you know what you know."

"But what are we going to do about it?" 

"I've got it handled." Lily said, and this she did feel confident about. Well,  _ she _ didn't have it handled, but a certain nocturnal vigilante would certainly know what to do with the information better than both of them would. 

Mary seemed to believe her, enough to turn into her apartment with no more questions at least. Lily began the long trek home. 

***

Lily managed to make it back to her apartment building alive, though she exhausted. She was glad the bat didn't try to stop her on the way home; on the one hand she was desperate to report her findings, on the other his appearance might have literally given her a heart attack, considering how paranoid she was right now. 

She unlocked the door to her apartment, and was surprised to find the living room lights on. She glanced at her watch, it was only 4am, Marlene wasn't due until six at least.

"Where the  _ hell _ have you been?" 

Marlene appeared suddenly in front of her, wearing her pyjamas and looking royally pissed off.

"Why are  _ you _ here?" Lily asked, startled, looking at her watch again. Had she mixed up the times?

"They sent me home early," Marlene said waving her hand dismissively, "So, you know, imagine my surprise when I come home at two in the morning and my roommate is mysteriously missing?"

"Ah." Lily said, dread settling in the pit of her stomach. Any goddamn night but tonight she might have been able to pull an excuse out of her ass, but she was so mentally and physically drained she could think of truly nothing.

"And like, it's not like I'm my roommate's mother, I'm not saying she has to have a curfew—" Marlene started,

"You're doing the third person thing." Lily said, tiredly, "I hate it when you do that."

"But she could at least pick up her goddamn phone one of the twelve times I called her!" 

"Twelve times?" Lily said, surprised, rummaging through her bag, looking for her cell.

"Might have been sixteen by the end, I lost count." Marlene said.

"Ah." Lily said again, pulling out her phone, flipping it open, and realizing that she did, indeed, have sixteen missed calls. She must have had it on silent by accident.

"Sorry." She said, quite lamely. 

"You know I almost called the police for you? The police. In Gotham." Marlene said, a little breathless from her tirade.

"Sorry." Lily said, with a wince and a lot more feeling.

"Look, I'm not— I'm not mad—"

"You sound mad." Lily noted.

"I'm not  _ mad _ ," Marlene repeated, a little more forcefully, "You just scared the everloving shit out of me." 

"And I am really sorry. I'll warn you next time I go out, I was just..." Lily trailed off, still lacking a decent excuse for where the hell she had been.

"I don't even care, just don't do that again, please." Marlene said, rubbing her forehead. Lily must have really shaken her if she didn't care. 

"I won't. I promise." 

"Good. I'm going to bed now. Please don't disappear again before breakfast."

Marlene padded off to her room, and Lily set about locking the door. After some consideration, she went ahead and locked the windows too. She had a promise to keep, and she didn't want to take chances.


	8. Chapter 8

James wondered if this was what being an addict felt like.

He knew, objectively, that it was a terrible idea, that he really should leave Lily Evans alone, and that, if nothing else, he should stop showing up to her job to talk to her.

But the pull was too great, it was like he couldn’t stop himself. He knew he should limit his interactions with her, he knew he was running the risk of her getting suspicious of him if she hung out with both sides of him for too long. She was too clever, she would put it together if he gave her the pieces. And yet, he found himself contriving ways to see her again that weren’t completely and totally inappropriate. 

Checking her work schedule felt like a step too far, which was a bit ironic considering his alter ego had run a full background check on her before they had even met. But this was James, not the Batman, and James would've never made it this far if he didn't learn how to compartmentalize the hell out of his two identities.

So he showed up on a Saturday, three hours before his meeting was scheduled, just on the off chance that she was there. He didn't exactly feel good about it, but he didn't put a lot of effort into stopping himself either. He also didn't have a very good excuse for being there beyond "I mixed up the time," which felt a little risky, but ce la vie. 

He knew his gamble had paid off the second he rounded the hallway towards the nurses station, he could spot her red hair a mile away. She noticed him quickly too, and didn't even try to make a run for it this time, which James considered a resounding success.

"You know, if you actually worked here I would report you to HR." Lily said, as James approached the station.

"Good thing we established I don't work here." He said cheerfully. She had never failed to greet him abrasively, but James could've sworn she was trying to hide a smile this time. Or maybe she was grimacing. But it was probably a smile. Probably.

"Good for you, maybe. I have to deal with a stalker." 

"I'm not stalking you." James said indignantly. He didn't add that he had specifically made a point not to, as that probably would not help his case.

"Oh yeah?" Lily said, setting her pen down on the desk and leaning her chin on her folded hands. 

"Scouts honor." James said, crossing his fingers over his heart, "I'm a little early for my meeting and I thought I would say hi."

"How early are you?" Lily asked.

"Oh you know. Early."

Unexpectedly, Lily gave a small laugh.

"Should've known you'd be a terrible liar." she said, and James laughed along at this too, though probably for a different reason. If only she knew how good a liar he really was.

"Okay, so I showed up 3 hours early, hoping you'd be here." James admitted, "But I didn't stalk you. I just hoped you'd be scheduled." 

"That's commitment, I'm almost impressed." Lily said. She didn't look mad, maybe a bit baffled, but not upset.

"I'm not trying to be weird—" he started.

"Oh don't worry, you're being extremely weird." she assured him.

"Right. Well, it's not intentional. I just enjoy our conversations."

"You know, when most people find someone they like hanging out with, they ask to hang out outside their place of work. They don't show up at odd hours hoping they'll be there." Lily said, with the same tone someone would use to explain a simple math concept to a second grader.

"They must have skipped over that at Cotillion." James said.

"Sure." Lily said, though she sounded amused.

"I can leave you alone if you're busy." James said, desperately hoping she would say no, but fully expecting a yes. 

"Nah." Lily said, leaning back in her chair, "I'm almost done, and I've been at it for hours anyways."

James blinked in surprise.

"Wow. That's like the first time you haven't told me to go away."

"Don't get too cocky, you're only a step above paperwork." Lily said.

"I'll be sure to remember my place." 

"Hey, where'd you get that scar?" She asked suddenly, sitting upright in her chair. She was staring pointedly at his face, which James found incredibly distracting.

"Huh?" 

"That one under your eye." Lily said, touching the spot she was talking about on her own face. 

James' hand flew upward automatically, touching the same spot. He knew what it was from; in the earlier days of being the bat, before he had fully figured out the helmet schematics, he'd gotten clocked and the eyepiece had shattered. It lodged a bit of glass in the soft skin underneath his eye, leaving a small, but perceptible scar. Most people either didn't notice it, or ignored it altogether. But James knew very well at this point that Lily was not most people.

"Sorry, that was kind of personal." Lily said, seeming to note his hesitation. 

"No, it's alright." James said, although she had caught him so off guard he did not have a suitable lie prepared, "It's from, uh, a fistfight. Long time ago." 

"Were they wearing a ring or something?" Lily asked. She was leaning forward in her chair slightly, curious, though she was trying not to show it. 

"Or something." James agreed. It was probably better to keep the details of this fight mysterious, primarily because it had never actually occurred, and secondarily, though not unimportantly, because Lily seemed intrigued.

"That bad-boy mystique usually works, doesn't it." Lily said, grinning. He knew she was making fun of him, and that she was right for it, but her smile sent butterflies to his stomach nonetheless.

"Usually." James said, leaning against the counter and trying to look cool. Lily looked as though she were trying to hold back a laugh.

"Yeah, I can tell." 

"You're being really nice to me today." James noted. Lily raised an eyebrow.

"What, would you rather I be mean? I can go back to doing that, if you like."

"No, I like this. I mean— I liked it when you were mean to me too, but it's nice to spice things up a bit every once in a while."

Lily's eyebrow inched ever-higher.

"You liked it when I was mean to you?" 

"Not many people have the guts to be mean to me." James admitted, "It's refreshing, I guess."

Lily laughed, properly now, a warm full sound. James never wanted it to stop.

"Is that why you won't leave me alone?" she asked, still laughing.

"Sort of." James said, knowing the truth was much more complicated.

"That's a bit ironic." Lily said, looking amused.

"Why's that ironic?"

"I only decided to be nice to you because everything else in my life is such a mess, I figured if you weren't going to stop bugging me I might as well make it more pleasant." Lily said, quite matter-of-factly. It was a bit of an alarming statement at face value, but Lily didn't seem bothered at all. 

"I really will go away if you want me to." James reiterated. 

"You can't, I'm hooked now." Lily said, maintaining a serious expression except for the edge of her lip, which was twitching with a smile, "I'm like those girls who get that disease where they fall for their kidnappers." 

"Stockholm syndrome?" James suggested, unable to hide his grin.

"That's the one." Lily said, letting a bit more of her smile leak through her serious facade. 

"Glad to know I'm causing you psychological distress."

"Oh, no more than usual." Lily said, a little too casually. She seemed to recognize her error though, because before James could say anything else, she spoke again.

"Although, I don't appreciate you lying to me."

"Lying to you?" James said, quickly back-scanning the conversation for any glaringly obvious mistruths. 

"Yeah, I'm not the only person ballsy enough to be mean to you. The papers have never had a nice thing to say about you." Lily said, seemingly not noticing James' initial panic.

"Oh, that." James said, trying not to sound too relieved, "That doesn't count. They wouldn't be mean to my face."

"So them printing story after story about you being a raging asshole doesn't bother you?" Lily asked. She was looking at him strangely, like she was trying to gauge a reaction.

"Not really." James said, impassively. 

He wasn't sure exactly where this was heading, but he wasn't entirely sure he liked the direction. People in his life occasionally questioned his press strategy, which was both very deliberate, and on a surface level, very dumb. But nobody ever managed to take the next step and figure out exactly why he was doing what he was doing. In fairness, it was pretty contrived, and probably only made sense to James, but the less people connected him to anything his alter ego was involved in, the more secure he felt that his secret identity would stay secret. So he fed them stories about parties and models and other nonsensical bullshit nobody really cared about, and the idea that James might be a socially responsible human being never crossed anyone's minds. 

"You really don't care?" Lily asked, oblivious to James' mental musings.

"Nope." he said, popping the p.

"Doesn't your company care?" 

"Well..." James said, stalling. This was trickier. His personal media strategy had nearly caused the Potter Industries PR manager to cry on more than one occasion. 

"Is that why they don't have you on their website?" Lily asked, jumping on his hesitation. 

"Wait a minute—" James said, at once delighted by his realization, and the fact that he could derail this conversation before it got into dangerous territory, "Did you google me?"

Lily's cheeks and nose immediately went red, and James knew immediately that he was correct.

"No." She said, though it was obviously a lie.

"Oh my god, you totally did. Who's the stalker now?" James said. He could not hide the grin on his face. She had bothered to look him up.

"Still you." Lily said, blushing furiously, "And I didn't google you, my roommate did."

"Same difference." James said, waving his hand dismissively.

"It's very different."

"If you say so." 

"Very, very different."

"Either way, you were talking about me."

"You know how you keep offering to leave? I'd like to cash that in now. You can go away."

"And just when we were having fun, too." James said, still grinning like a madman. 

" _ You're _ having fun. I'm having a terrible time." Lily said. Her face was still quite red, but she looked less like she would like to melt into the floor.

"I'll go ahead and end your suffering." James said. He really probably should go, he wasn't sure how long they had been talking, but it was probably enough to get her in trouble if anyone asked. 

"Good." Lily said. James may have been making it up, but he was fairly sure that he detected a note of disappointment in the word.

"One last thing though." James said, "Can I borrow a pen?" 

At this Lily looked confused, though she handed him one from the little bucket on the desk.

James pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, something unimportant, and flipped it over. He scribbled on the back for a second, and then handed it to her. She took it dubiously, frowning.

"What's this?"

"My number. So you can call me, and I can stop hanging out at your place of work like a stalker." James said. The tip of Lily's nose went pink, but she gave no other indication of being amused.

"What makes you think I'll use this?" Lily asked skeptically, though she was studying his writing.

"I have every confidence that you will." James said, "You've got the kidnapping disease, after all."

Lily cracked a small smile at that comment. 

"Stockholm syndrome."

"That's it. And I really will leave you alone, unless you call me."

"Really?" 

"I've bothered you enough. It's only fair that the ball's in your court, now." James said.

"How do you know I won't post this online?" Lily said. She was grinning impishly. 

"I don't think you hate me that much." James said, "At least, I hope you don't."

"I guess you'll just have to wait and find out." Lily said, folding the paper carefully, and tucking it into her shirt pocket.

"I guess I will."

***

Lily walked up the stairs to her apartment two at a time, her mind reeling. Her conversation with James had taken place hours ago, but she'd been able to focus on nothing else since. She couldn't believe that their plan had worked— at least, it had until she was stupid enough to mention the company website. That had quite possibly been one of the most humiliating moments of her life, and she had a lot to choose from.

"I'm an idiot!" She announced, throwing the door to the apartment open, where Marlene was waiting on the couch, pretending to read a book. She threw it aside immediately.

"So he didn't show?" Marlene asked, looking deeply disappointed.

"No, he showed up." Lily reassured her. Marlene's planning had been faultless, as it often was. She had predicted James would come back the same time he had seen Lily last, since it was the only time he knew that she worked. Lily had scheduled herself accordingly.

"I knew it!" Marlene crowed.

"But I completely blew it, I made a stupid comment about the website and he saw through it all." Lily moaned, throwing herself dramatically down on the couch next to her friend.

"Rookie mistake, Evans!" Marlene said, lobbing a throw pillow at Lily, which she deftly dodged.

"I know, I know. It was going really well too."

"Were you nice to him?" Marlene asked suspiciously. This too had been part of Marlene's meticulous planning. The flirting had been Lily's own addition. She had convinced herself that it would get him to open up to her, and it had. Lily hadn't smiled so much in a long while, though now hours later she was having trouble discerning what had been natural and what had not.

"Yeah. Though he actually told me he liked me originally because I was mean to him." Lily admitted.

"Mommy issues." Marlene said smartly.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that."

"Whatever, did you find out  _ anything _ ?"

"Well, whatever he's doing, it's on purpose, he basically admitted the company hates it." Lily said.

"God, I am absolutely dying to know what this man is hiding." Marlene groaned.

"Well, I might have more opportunities to find out." 

Marlene gave her a strange look.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"He kind of, uh..." Lily began, immediately realizing she probably should have led with this information, "He sort of gave me his number."

Marlene sat straight up like someone had shocked her with electricity.

"He did  _ WHAT _ ?"

"You heard what I said!"

"Like his phone number? His real actual phone number?" Marlene demanded.

"I mean, I guess?" Lily said.

"Christ Evans, you're fucking impossible." Marlene moaned, putting her head in her hands.

"Sorry." Lily said, half-heartedly. 

"You're going to call him right? I swear to god if you don't—"

"I guess so. I mean, I really do want to figure this thing out—" Lily started, but Marlene interrupted her.

"Oh, who cares about the press thing anymore!" 

"You did, like 30 seconds ago." Lily said, a bit confused.

"That was before." Marlene said, "This is way bigger. Besides, if you start dating him you'll probably figure it out anyways."

Lily recoiled, alarmed.

"Who said anything about dating?" 

"Nobody, if you're sensitive about it." Marlene said, rolling her eyes, "Although come on, he's clearly into you."

Lily could not exactly argue with that, though as she broke down the rest of the conversation in great detail she tried her best to tone down the flirtation. Hers had been something of an act anyways, so really it didn't count. 

That was what she told herself, anyways.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey y'all, sorry I disappeared for a minute! The past few weeks have been incredibly stressful and I really needed a break. unfortunately I probably won't be updating regularly until late december since I've got a massive amount of course work and then final exams, but I'll try and post chapters when I have time! in the meantime I hope you enjoy this one :) please excuse grammar and conventional stuff this time around, i'm running off fumes and I'm my own proofreader lol

It was freeing, being the Batman.

This was a rather obvious part of why James did it all to begin with, but somehow it never ceased to surprise him. Spending a night floating through the city, cloaked in equal parts anonymity and reputation, was shockingly thrilling. If he were honest, that was probably part of the reason why he hadn't ever revealed himself to his friends. Probably a bigger part of the reason than it should be. It wasn't that he didn't trust them, but letting them in on his little— Well, frankly, enormous,— secret would ruin the illusion that when James was in the suit, he was a different person.

Of course, he'd thrown the illusion out the window the moment he'd decided to speak to Lily Evans. The few times he had to interact with people he knew in the suit before it hadn't been a problem. But for some reason she was able to penetrate the literal and metaphorical armor to make him feel like just James. That in and of itself was a type of thrill, but he recognized it as a dangerous one. If he felt too much like himself he might accidentally give himself away. She was smart enough to figure it out if she really tried. He was sure of it. 

If he were honest with himself, he should really just stop seeing her as himself, those interactions were frivolous and silly and not at all crucial to protecting Gotham and the people in it. Her help with the Felix situation could be absolutely vital, and to risk it all for a bit of flirting was completely idiotic. But still he did it.

Tonight he didn't have to feel guilty about speaking to her. He was suited up, the Batman rather than James, and the talk would be business only. That is, if she showed up. She hadn't in almost a week, and James was starting to get a bit worried. She had seemed fine the other day at the hospital, but it's not like she was going to tell  _ him _ if something had gone wrong. 

He picked out his usual stakeout spot, a fire escape on a mostly empty building just above the route she normally took to the club. It was a quiet night. Cold, probably, but he couldn't feel it through the suit. He waited for an hour, almost two, and was just about to call it quits for the night when someone passed the sidewalk under him. From above he couldn't make out any discernible features, there was a hat and a hood, but as soon as they were past his vantage point he saw a loose strand of red hair. Lily was back.

James dropped down beside her, careful to make noise when he did so she would notice his arrival. She had gotten quite good at not jumping in surprise, but there was still a small flinch in her shoulders that was difficult to hide. James couldn't blame her-- he'd designed the suit to be unsettling, after all. He had to stop himself from doing a double take at her appearance-- mostly at the thick glasses, but the most he looked the more he noticed a shift in her look. Baggier, darker clothes. And the hat. There was no reason to wear a baseball cap in winter unless you were trying to hide something.

"Nice disguise." He said. He meant it a little teasingly, mostly to let her know that he had noticed, but he wasn't sure if it would translate through the voice modulator in the suit. She gave him a strange look, as though she could not quite parse out his tone.

"Well, we can't all afford custom bat suits." She replied, a little bit of heat rising in her cheeks. It really wasn't that bad all things considered: the bagginess of the jacket hid her figure, the hood and the hat hid her distinctive red hair. The glasses changed the shape of her face slightly, and brought out the light freckles that scattered her cheeks. If you looked longer than a few seconds it became clear it was her, but it was enough to give someone pause, and to hide her from a distance. 

"It works. I almost missed you." he said. He hoped that hadn't been the intention, but he decided not to voice that part out loud. That was probably a little more James talking than the Bat.

"Glad you didn't," Lily said, and the words sent a ridiculous, disproportionate thrill through James, "'Cause I've got a lot of news for you, and none of it is good."

Moments like this were the dangerous bits, James thought. When he was caught up in the marvel of her, and she had already gotten to work.

"Roof?" James asked, offering his arm, and trying to clear his head of inane thoughts. She accepted, reluctantly, but maybe a little less reluctantly than the time before. They shot upwards, reaching the relative sanctuary of a city rooftop in record time. She immediately started pacing.

"It's really bad." Lily said, before he could even ask, "Like really bad, I mean I guess you probably knew that already, but I think I've figured out how they're doing it, I mean, maybe, maybe I'm just paranoid—"

"Wait, wait, slow down." James said, frowning, although she couldn't see it through the mask. She paused her pacing for a second, looking at him almost like she had forgotten he was there. 

"One thing at a time. What did you figure out?"

"How they're disappearing people." she said breathlessly, "It is the drug, I mean we kind of figured that, right? But the thing is, it makes you really tired, like really tired, after you use it. And every time you use it you get more tired, until eventually you pass out on your way home." 

"How did you figure that out?" James asked. He wasn't concerned, per say, because she had gotten it done, and he trusted her to be smart enough to be discrete, but the level of detail there was a little concerning. 

"I was with one of them— Mary, when it happened." she said, and launched into a fuller explanation of that night's events. How she'd gone to the fights (even though she'd sworn not to, a detail James found interesting but not altogether surprising) and noticed Mary MacDonald. How she'd followed her down the alleyway when Mary had knocked out cold, a few hours after her fight. 

She told the story carefully, seeming to have contained some of the nervous energy enough to keep a specific account of what happened. She was definitely downplaying how scared she was, that much was fairly obvious. But he didn't think he was keeping anything else to herself.

"So?" she asked, when she had finally concluded her tale, ending with her dropping Mary off at her apartment and telling her to stop taking Felix.

James considered. Her conclusion was solid. But something about it just felt so simplistic. It couldn't possibly be that easy.

"It makes sense." He said slowly, "The roofie aspect is interesting, I think you're right that that's how they're getting people so easily."

"But?" she asked, sensing it coming.

"But that can't be all it's for. If they just needed to roofie people they would roofie them. Making a whole new drug is overcomplicating things."

"Maybe the strength part is for rigging the fights for betting?" Lily said, "I mean that's the obvious answer, right." 

"Maybe. But then why would they take out their rigged fighter with the roofie?"

"I don't know." Lily said glumly, scuffing the sole of her shoe against the ground absentmindedly. 

"There's definitely more going on." James said. He hesitated, wondering how much more he should elaborate. He'd been doing some research of his own, and what he knew could help Lily if she was willing to keep helping him. On the other hand, the information was sensitive. If word got around that she knew, she'd be in danger. 

"How much more?" Lily asked, frowning. Then she winced, leaned against the small building that housed the stairwell.

"Are you alright?"

Lily winced again, then sunk into a sitting position.

"Fine." She said, though she didn't look it, "My legs... they just get stiff sometimes." 

James knew this could not be the entire truth, but she didn't look like she wanted to discuss the topic further. He tucked the information away for later. Maybe he could bring it up to her as himself, somehow. 

No. That was a terrible idea. That was the type of thing that was going to tip her off and blow his cover.

He filed the information away anyways.

"Finish what you were saying before." Lily said, clearly impatient to move on from the more obvious topic, "About there being more going on."

"Oh." James said, suddenly returned to the earlier dilemma. It was suddenly much less appealing to disclose. But she deserved to know, on some level. Considering she had foiled Mary's probable kidnapping, she was probably already a target anyways. The thought wasn't comforting.

"You can't tell anyone this. Especially nobody at the club. It could put them in danger." He said. 

"Will it put me in danger?" Lily asked. Perceptive as always.

"Probably. But I have a feeling you'd be in it anyways." 

She sighed.

"Fair enough. I'll keep my mouth shut."

"The drug is being distributed through regular paths. No new dealers." 

This had been easy enough to observe, and he'd gotten one or two of the veteran dealers to trust him over the years. Being a billionaire was never more convenient than when he was doing field work. Consistent bribery went a long way.

"So?" Lily asked.

"So, it's not coming from the usual sources. It only has one source. A new... group."

"Group?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow, "What type of group?"

"I don't really know yet." James admitted.

"Do you know anything about them?" Lily asked skeptically. She didn't seem to be finding this information all that impressive, but she also wasn't in this world the same way he was. She interacted with the people, sure, made friends, patched people up. But he could tell that she had built a very effective wall between herself and the less savory aspects of these people's lives. 

"A name, mostly." James said, hesitating again before saying, "They call themselves the Death Eaters." 

At this, Lily snorted.

"That's a stupid fucking name." she said, grinning mirthlessly.

"I wouldn't say it to their faces." James said, gravely, "From what I can tell, they're dangerous, and powerful."

Lily seemed to take this with the appropriate amount of weight. She stopped smiling.

"So that's what Sev was talking about." she said, almost to herself. Her frown was so deep it was hard to remember she'd been smiling the second before.

"Sev?" James asked. Lily bit her lip.

"Yeah. My fri— well, he's not my friend anymore. I didn't mention it before because he was useless, but maybe..." she trailed off, lost in thought.

"What didn't you mention?"

"Well." She said, looking a bit embarrassed, "Before I found everything with Mary, I asked someone else I know about it. I thought he might... I don't know what I thought, really. Just that he would know something. And I guess he did, because he told me to drop it, and that the whole thing was dangerous. So he was right, I suppose."

"Who did you ask?" James asked, equal parts excited and suspicious. Excited because this person could potentially be a lead, suspicious because she seemed so intent on avoiding their name.

"Um. Have you ever heard of the Potions Master? Stupid name, I know."

But James was not really even listening to that last bit, because the second she said "Potions Master" his heart had dropped to his stomach and turned to ice.

"You spoke to him?" He asked, trying to not sound frantic, and probably failing miserably.

"Uh, yeah? Lots of people do." Lily said. She looked confused. 

"You talked to him about  _ this _ ?"

At this, Lily's face reddened slightly.

"Yeah? I mean he's the drug guy, right?"

It occured to James that Lily probably did not understand the gravity of what she was saying. The fucking Potions Master. And she had been  _ friends _ with him? But if she wasn't anymore then surely that meant she knew what he had done... but if she had known why would she be so cavalier about it all? And if he was involved with whatever was going on with Felix, they were all in a lot more trouble than he'd previously anticipated.

"I feel like I'm missing something." Lily said, filling the heavy silence. James struggled for a second to find the simplest way to dilute his concern.

"If he's involved in this... that's not good." James said. Lily looked uncomfortable.

"He might not be. He's tapped into that stuff, he could've just heard about it." She said, but James could tell even she didn't really believe her own words.

"Lily." he said, "I'm not here to tell you what to do. But you shouldn't talk to him again. I'm surprised you got out of the first conversation unscathed."

Lily was quiet for a minute. James couldn't read her expression.

"He did something really bad, didn't he?" she said finally. She sounded resigned.

"Yes." James said. He could tell she wasn't searching for details. If she wanted them, she could ask.

"I figured.” she said. She rested her head on her folded knees, looking dejected, 

“I knew he wasn't all good, but I just figured... I don't know. That it evened out somehow. But he fucked up with me, and I always suspected there was something more. So I guess now I know."

James wondered if Lily was like this with everyone she knew. Content with half-truths and cherry-picked details about themselves, never going deep enough to wade through the uncomfortable realities of people's lives. It was certainly true for both sides of himself. It made him wonder how much of her he really knew, how much of herself she had genuinely let him see. If she only let people in half-way, how much of herself did she let out?

"Just stay away from him. Especially now that he might be involved in the Felix business." James said finally. It was a bit of lame response, but he wasn't sure exactly what else to say. She nodded discordantly. Her mind was clearly elsewhere.

"You should lay low on this side of the city too." 

James briefly considered whether she would stop going to the club if he asked, and immediately decided the answer would be a resounding and offended no. 

"Don't walk alone, if you can help it." He said instead. She gave him a quizzical look.

"How are you supposed to sneak up on me if I'm not by myself?" She said. She seemed to sense their meeting was drawing to a close, because she stood up, leaning against the stairwell. 

It was probably a joke, but James had been waiting for the question regardless. He pulled a small device out of his toolkit and handed it to her.

"A pager?" she said, looking skeptical.

"Sort of. If I need you, it'll buzz and give the time and location where we can meet." 

"And I can't send you anything?" she said, turning the device over in her hands.

"That button on the front," James said, pointing, and she flipped it the right way round, revealing a small red button, "If you press it, it'll activate a tracking device and send me a signal. So only press it if it's a real emergency."

Lily gave him a suspicious look. 

"Are you sure it's not tracking me all the time?"

"Positive." James said. The tracker was practical, but he had still debated putting it in at all. It felt gross, but if they ever needed to use it, they'd both be glad it was there.

"It's just, I don't know who you are, you know?" Lily said, staring intently at the emergency button, "I mean, there's got to be times when you're not doing this, and you're just a person. It's weird." 

James didn't quite know how to respond to that.

"I guess you're pretty aware of that, though." Lily said, glancing up at him, finally.

"More than you know." James said. 

James would wonder later how he could learn more about Lily in one conversation as the Bat than in three conversations as himself. The more he thought about it, the more he returned to those last few lines of conversation. How it was the first time that it had truly occurred to her that there was someone behind the mask. 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys, sorry this took literally forever! I'm done with school for the next month so hopefully I'll be back on a more consistent weekly update schedule! Thanks for reading as always :)

Lily stared at the phone. It stared back at her. She glared back. The phone stared harder.

Lily sighed, finally breaking eye contacts with the buttons. She had been sitting on the floor, staring up at their landline hanging on the wall for almost an hour. She knew it was dumb. She knew she should just do it or not. God knew she had plenty of better things to do than have a staring match with a telephone. 

She glared at the landline for putting her in such a predicament. It simply looked back at her, unaffected. Because it was a hunk of plastic on her wall, not a sentient creature. She was going crazy.

Lily sighed, pulling herself up from the ground. She would just have to do it. Marlene would be home soon, and if she didn't now she would lose her nerve, and the afternoon she had spent building it up. 

She pulled the carefully folded slip of paper out of her pocket, flattening it gingerly. James' messy scribble depicted his name and a phone number.

Looking at the handwriting almost made her lose her nerve again. She'd decided to give up on the whole James Potter situation, or at least put it on pause for a while. She had more important things to worry about. Much more important. Life or death things, things beyond an admittedly addicting but ultimately useless curiosity over James and what he was up to. 

But then she had gotten The Idea. The Idea was possibly the worst idea she'd ever had in her life, but now that she had The Idea she could not get it out of her head, because she knew Marlene would find it to be the funniest thing in the entire world and if she did not carry out The Idea to fruition Marlene might genuinely not forgive her. No matter that Marlene did not currently know the contents of The Idea, she would find out somehow, someway. And when she did and simultaneously realized that Lily had the means to go through with it but not the guts, she would excommunicate her from their friendship. And then Lily would be left friendless and alone.

Well, that was not quite true. Lily had other friends. Marcus being one, though she hadn't seen him in weeks. The only other person Lily had been hanging out with consistently lately was the goddamn Batman, who Lily firmly slotted into the "weird business associate" category of relationships. She refused to be friends with someone who dressed up like a bat for fun. 

Either way, living without Marlene sounded both boring and personally disastrous, and Lily was not willing to risk it. She took a deep breath, looked down at the paper, and dialed the number.

He picked up on the first ring. 

"Hello?"

"Hey." Lily said, nerves rushing in all of the sudden. She twisted the telephone wire around her finger.

"Lily?" James asked, sounded both surprised and delighted. Lily's stomach flipped. 

"Yeah, it's me." 

"To what do I owe the pleasure of this phone call?" 

God, it was like he could tell she was about to ask something embarrassing.

"I have sort of a... favor to ask you." Lily said, twisting the telephone wire into a knot with one hand "You don't have to though." she added quickly.

"Anything." James said, easily. 

Lily nearly swore under her breath. She'd been hoping against hope that he would say no, even though she had known from the moment she picked up the phone that he wouldn't. He wasn't the type of person to say no to things. Though, Lily supposed, it was probably a lot easier to not say no to things when one had billions of dollars at their disposal, ready to spend on anyone and anything at the drop of a hat. The thought grounded her, reminded her why she didn't like him. Didn't like him or his billions and billions of unethical dollars. She felt much better after that moment of self indulgence, until she remembered the mission of the phone call. Then she felt sick again.

"Don't you want to hear what it is first?" She ventured, mostly to kill time.

"Where's the fun in that?" James said cheerfully.

"You have to promise not to laugh." Lily sighed, leaning against the wall. She wished she would melt into it.

"Why would I laugh?" James sounded intrigued, though she could tell he was trying to smother most of his glee at the proposition. 

"Because I'm about to ask for something really really embarrassing." With each 'really' Lily thumped her head against the wall. Lightly. But enough to be felt.

"Okay, I won't laugh." James said. He sounded serious, a little too serious, like he was pretending to be serious in order to cover up the fact that he was laughing.

"It's not for me, it's for my friend." Lily said, forging ahead, trying not to picture his face in her mind's eye, earnest, smiling, barely containing laughter.

"Nobody has ever said that phrase and meant it." 

"Okay actually never-mind, I don't need any—" Lily started, but James interrupted her.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, nobody has ever said that phrase and meant it until this moment in history when you said it just now." James said hurriedly. 

"It really is for my friend." Lily insisted, because she was not going to go through with this if there was even a sliver of doubt that it was true, "My roommate, Marlene, she's really obsessed with— ugh. She's really obsessed with celebrities and things. Like really obsessed. It's her one true passion in life." 

"Go on." James said. Lily could tell she had intrigued him now. She was past the point of no return.

"And she's particularly obsessed with that one magazine, CelebrityLiving."

"I know it well." He said.

Of course he did. He was splashed on the front cover more often than not.

"She's on all the blogs and forums and things. I mean like, incredibly obsessed with this one magazine."

"They have forums just for the magazine?" 

"You'd be surprised." Lily said.

"Right. Continue."

Lily sighed. 

"Well, her birthday is coming up. It's in a week. And I was wondering... ugh." The full scope of what she was about to ask him hit her like a ton of bricks.

"Lily, the suspense is killing me." James said.

Lily closed her eyes, mentally preparing herself for abject embarrassment.

"I was wondering if maybe you could... sign one for her."

James was silent for a good ten seconds.

"Hello?" Lily said nervously. Maybe the line had disconnected. Maybe he hadn't heard her. Maybe she could go the rest of her life in peace, never thinking of him again.

"I'm still here." James said, dashing her hopes. He sounded breathless.

"You're laughing at me." Lily complained. She could feel her face growing hot. She was so glad this was at least over the phone so he couldn't make fun of her blushing.

"I'm not." James said, clearly holding in laughter, "I'm really not, I swear."

"This is the most humiliating moment of my life." Lily groaned, sliding down the wall to the floor. Both because she would very much like to sink into the floor, never to be seen by humankind again, and also because her leg was starting to twinge in that uncomfortable way it did when she stood for too long nowadays.

"If this is the most humiliating moment of your life I think you've done pretty well for yourself so far." 

"You don't understand how bad this is." 

"Don't worry, I understand." 

"That's not comforting the way you think it is."

"I mean, look at it this way," James said, sounding far too cheerful, "At least your humiliation is contained to just me. Every time I do something embarrassing it's splashed all over the front page of CelebrityLiving."

"I suppose." Lily said, unconvinced. She could not think of a single person on Earth who it would be more embarrassing to share this situation with than James, ignoring that he was a central tenant of it all. She would have to share it with Marlene eventually, but Marlene would just find it funny. Really, the fact that Lily had to go through all this in order to get the damn magazine would probably please Marlene more than the magazine itself. 

"I'll do it." James said, putting on an air as if Lily was asking for a great deal of inconvenience from him rather than 20 seconds of his time and a sharpie, "But—"

"But?" Lily cut in, apprehensively.

"It's a small but." James promised.

"How small?"

"Just a cup of coffee."

"You want me to buy you coffee?" Lily asked, confused. 

"No, I want you to let me buy you coffee." James corrected.

"You want me to go on a date with you." Lily realized, panic seizing her.

"Who said anything about a date? It would simply two people, two  _ friends _ , if you will, getting coffee together. Happens all the time." James said innocently. 

"You're paying, though." Lily pointed out, electing to ignore the fact that A) he had called them friends, and B) that descriptor was not entirely inaccurate. There was simply no time to mentally unpack that right now.

"I'm a billionaire. It would be rude of me to not pay for your coffee." 

Lily truly could not argue with that. 

"Okay." She said, begrudgingly.

"Fantastic." James said, his voice brightening immediately, "We can go now!"

"Now?" Lily asked, alarmed; she had been expecting at least a day or two to mentally prepare, "It's four in the afternoon!" 

"So?"

" _ So _ , who drinks coffee at four in the afternoon?"

"Lily, are you really going to stand here and tell me you have a normal sleep schedule that would prevent you from drinking coffee at 4p.m. on a Wednesday?" 

"You don't know what my sleep schedule is like." Lily said, doing her best to sound offended, despite the fact that he was absolutely correct. Between work and the club and lying awake thinking about everything she could not remember the last time she had fallen asleep at a normal hour.

"You work night shifts." James said easily, "Plus, you just seem like the type. I would know, since I am also the type. Which is why I'm not opposed to getting coffee at four in the afternoon." 

"Aren't you supposed to be working right now?" Lily asked, suddenly remembering that he actually did have a job as well. Maybe a somewhat fake job, because when you are born with several billion dollars do you really ever have a job, but a job all the same.

"That's the wonderful thing about being the CEO, I can ditch anytime I like." James said, somewhat confirming her suspicions that his job was really more for the aesthetic of it all than actual work.

Lily sighed, realizing that she had lost this battle.

"Where do I meet you?"

***

The address James gave her was in a surprisingly non-descript neighborhood, down by the edge of the river. She had been fully expecting him to send her deep into the rich part of Gotham, the small collection of blocks that held the few genuine skyscrapers the city had to offer, Potter industries being one of them. She'd only been there once or twice, and it had felt like an entirely different world; the streets were clean and well lit, the people walking down the street didn't have the same hardness in their eyes. And everything was more expensive. Which was just as well, since the city trains didn't even go into that part of town. The city seemed to figure that anyone who had any business being there could afford a cab.

Lily could not afford a cab, so she was glad to find that the little coffee shop tucked on a corner just a block away from the closest train stop. James was already standing outside, holding two cups of coffee. 

"Am I late?" Lily asked, as James handed her one of the cups.

"Right on time." James said, cheerful as ever, "I got here early though, so I figured I'd grab us something. I had to guess for you though."

Lily took a sip of her drink, a touch apprehensive. But to her surprise, it was just how she liked it— way too sweet, with a lot of milk.

"How did you know?" she asked, very confused. 

"It was an educated guess." James said, taking a sip from his own drink and looking very pleased with himself.

"Most people think I take my coffee black." Lily admitted. 

"See, that was my first guess," James said, "But then I remembered the night that we met, and I thought: would a girl who smuggled an entire tray of mini hot dogs under a table drink black coffee?"

"I was hungry." Lily grumbled into her drink, taking a sip to hide the smile she was having a hard time suppressing, "And what does that have to do with my coffee order, anyways?"

"It means you like junk food, and sweet coffee is basically just junk food you can drink." James answered, as if this perfectly obvious and not mildly nonsensical. Though, in fairness, he had come to the correct conclusion.

"I like healthy food." Lily said, defensively, though this was something of a stretch, "Like— salad and... fruit." 

"Ah yes, the two healthy foods, salad and fruit." James said, clearly trying not to laugh.

"Okay, so I eat crap, you were right." Lily said, rolling her eyes and taking another deep swig of her junk food coffee. It might be destroying her arteries but at least it was delicious.

“If it helps, my coffee is even worse than yours.” James said. 

“Is that even possible?” 

“Try it.” He said, grinning, holding his cup out to her. She took it tentatively, and took a cautious sip. 

“Oh my god.” She said, covering her mouth with her hand. It was so sugary it made her drink seem bitter. 

“Bad, right?” James said, taking the cup back and taking a generous swig. 

“I mean that is just offensive. Is there even coffee in there?” 

“Not very much, no.” James said, sounded far too pleased about it, “Well, are you ready to go?” 

Lily looked around at him, confused. 

“Go? Aren’t we here?” 

James gave her a wicked grin. 

“Well, we have to find a magazine, don’t we?” 

  
  



	11. Chapter 11

Lily was surprised at how natural it felt to walk around the streets of Gotham with James Potter. 

She didn't know exactly why she had thought it would be any different— after all, James had subverted her expectations at every turn. Maybe a few months ago she would've assumed he drove around in an armoured car with a slew of bodyguards, but knowing him now she could see how markedly not his style that was. Nobody noticed them either, which was maybe the more surprising thing. But then again, who would expect to see James Potter outside of the gilded walls of downtown? 

"So," James said, once they had reached a comfortable walking pace, "you must really like your friend Marlene if you're willing to humiliate yourself for her."

"What, you don't have any friends you'd humiliate yourself for?" Lily asked, noting as she did that he had remembered Marlene's name, despite her only saying it once. He'd been paying attention. 

"Sure I do." James said easily, "I mean, half the stuff on those magazine covers is stuff I did on a dare." 

"Really?" Lily asked skeptically. 

"Oh yeah. Sirius and I have this thing going on, of who can make the most dramatic magazine cover." James said. 

"Sirius?"

"Sirius Black." James said, as if he expected her to know who that was. Lily did, but the tone still felt a bit presumptuous.

"You're friends with Sirius Black?" Lily asked. It should not be surprising, really, they were both part of that socialite class after all. But where James' parents had been beloved, Sirius Black's were reviled. The Potters had bestowed their wealth upon the city, dropping millions on social improvement projects and financial aid for the city's least fortunate. The Blacks, on the other hand, flaunted their wealth in a truly sickening way. Sure, they threw money at charitable causes now and again, but it was only ever to save face, and everyone knew it. Rumor had it they had bought off several notable politicians over the past few decades, but nobody could prove it.

Sirius himself was a bit of an odd character, most similar to James in public perception. Though his family bothered to pay off a reporter every now and again to write a puff piece to rehabilitate his party-boy image. It never worked, but at least they tried. Unlike James, who seemed content to let his bad (and, as Lily was coming to find, mostly false) reputation run amok. 

"Best friends, we went to school together. And every social event for the last ten years, probably." 

James glanced over at Lily when she didn't respond immediately, and spoke again as if he had read her mind.

"He doesn't talk to his parents, hasn't for years." 

"Makes, sense, I suppose, with parents like that." Lily said. And it did, make sense, because Lily could not see James being friends with someone like the Blacks.

James chuckled, but the laughter did not match his expression.

"If only you knew the half of it." 

There was something about his tone that made Lily not want to inquire more. 

"So what is this story that would win Sirius the contest?" She asked instead. Safer territory. 

At this, James' face split into a grin.

"Oh, he's desperate for them to find out he's gay."

"Really?" Lily said, letting that sink in. It only took a few seconds of mental adjustment. Pictures of Sirius with random women had never played quite so convincingly as they had for James, and knowing now that they had a set of dares going cleared that right up. But then she frowned in confusion.

"Wait, why wouldn't they print that? That'd be a best-seller." 

"His mother controls every press outlet in the city, and she doesn't want it getting out." James said, as if announcing this were as normal and casual as announcing that Sirius's mother ran a book club on Sunday nights, "It's a real bitch to find a reporter around here who can't be paid off. And his family has more money than his trust fund, unfortunately." 

"Damn." Lily said. It was at moments like these that she was reminded that she and James lived in two very different worlds. The idea of paying a reporter to do anything was so beyond absurd to Lily, yet James made it seem like an everyday occurance.

"Damn indeed." James sighed, "It has kept me on a winning streak though." 

"Well thank god for that." Lily said sarcastically, though she was smiling. 

"You're mocking me, which is fine because this deserves to be mocked." James said, also smiling. He stopped walking then, and Lily almost ran into him from behind.

“We’re here.” James said, turning towards the building on their right. 

Lily had almost forgotten that they had a destination in mind. In faltered, fading letters the sign above the store read: “Flourish and Blotts Used Books”

"Here?" She asked, puzzled. She had assumed they’d find a kiosk or something. 

"Sure. I mean, I figured since I'm not on the cover this week we might as well find one where I am." James said, looking positively gleeful at the prospect and opening the door to the shop, which jingled. 

“Hiya Barry!” James said, maintaining his effortless cheer to greet the shopkeeper. Barry, an older man with a mop of brown hair and his nose in a book, did not look half as pleased to see James.

“Back again, James?” He asked, reluctantly setting his book down. The cover was so faded Lily could not tell what he was reading.

“Listen, I’m looking for old magazines, particularly ones with my face on them, have you got any?”

“What on earth would you want that for?” 

“I’m going to sign them. For my adoring fans, you know.” James said, somehow managing to not burst out laughing as he said it. Barry looked over at Lily, as if noticing her for the first time.

“You’re not one of those adoring fans, are you?” he asked her.

Lily shook her head vigorously.

“No. Not at all.” 

“Good.” Barry said, turning his attention back on James, who had the decency to look fake hurt at Lily’s statement. 

“They’re in the back, by the mystery section.” 

“I knew I could count on you, Bar’.” James said, tapping the counter excitedly and tearing off to the back of the store. 

“Don’t call me Bar’.” Barry called after him.

“Do you come here a lot?” Lily asked quietly, catching up to his long strides as they walked through the romance section.

“Enough to make Barry love me.” James said, loud enough that the shopkeeper could hear. 

“I don’t!” Barry yelled from the front of the shop.

As promised, the floor near the mystery section held two large cardboard boxes with "50¢" printed largely on the sides in sharpie. Inside were stacks upon stacks of old magazines.

"Well, this shouldn't be hard." Lily said. Already she could see one or two adorned with James' face and a scandalous, probably untrue headline. 

Lily had more fun than she would like to admit rifling through the magazines, looking for the perfect one to give Marlene. James had an explanation for every absurd headline, and there were plenty of them. Lily's personal favorite was one that most prominently featured not James, but instead a pretty blonde model. The headline, in big bold letters read "I'm Pregnant, and It's His!" next to a rather unflattering headshot of James himself.

("Sirius paid for that one, the bastard." James had said with a grin upon looking at it).

In the end, they settled on a classic paparattzi shot of James getting out of a car, with the headline "Gotham's Biggest Party Boy Strikes Again!" It was nothing particularly original, but it had a big empty space for James to fit his signature, which he adorned on the magazine as soon as they had paid (featuring a judgmental look from Barry) and walked outside.

“Here you go.” He said, handing her the magazine with a flourish, “One signed CelebrityLiving from Gotham’s biggest party boy himself.” 

“Thanks.” Lily tried to hold in her laughter at the goofy look on his face, but she failed. He laughed along with her, and she noticed the little white scar under his eye again, how it crinkled when he smiled. 

“Really,” She said, composing herself, “Marlene’ll really really like it. So thank you.” 

“My pleasure.”

“I should be getting home.” Lily said, surprising herself with how regretful she sounded. But it was getting late, Marlene was going to start wondering where she was, and her legs were stiff from walking and standing so much. They had stopped twinging uncomfortable a while back, and had moved on to feeling numb. Lily knew enough about physiology to wager this was not a particularly good sign.

"Let me walk you back to your apartment.” James said easily, “It’s getting dark.” 

Lily nearly laughed at that. Her apartment was in what might be generously called a “not nice area,” though, in fairness, you could call most of Gotham that. She was fine with her ratty coat and familiarity with most of her neighbors, but bringing the city’s most notorious billionaire down that way might not go as well. 

“You can’t, you’ll—” Lily faltered, remembering with sudden clarity just exactly how James’ parents had died. 

“I’ll what?” he asked. His tone had lost some of it’s jovial edge, and Lily suspected that he knew her sentence was going to end with “get mugged.” Though, giving James a closer look now, would he really? Lily had just assumed that he was wearing some rich person brand that made expensive clothes look normal, though still expensive-looking if you looked hard enough. But his jeans looked like normal jeans, his jacket nondescript and boring. Even his glasses were lacking an expensive brand labeling, just round wire frames with no room for logos or names. If you didn’t give him a second glance, he looked like a normal guy. Nobody had recognized them all day. Which was almost certainly on purpose, she realized. 

“Nothing.” Lily said, “Nevermind.” 

The unsaid words lingered in the air anyways. Naturally, this inopportune moment was exactly when her right leg decided to give up on her. She would’ve fallen flat on her face if James hadn’t caught her.

“Woah! Are you okay?” he asked, his usual joking air gone in an instant, replaced with what Lily would wager was genuine concern. 

“Yeah, fine.” Lily said through gritted teeth, “I just— need to sit down a minute.” 

James lowered her to the curb, then sat down next to her. Lily counted to ten mentally, trying very hard to not to outwardly show the pain that had started flaring up and down her leg. 

“Do you need food? I can go—” James started, but Lily cut him off.

“No, no, it’s fine. I’m not dizzy or anything, it’s…” she trailed off. She had not told anybody about her legs, not Marlene or Marcus or anyone else. But James was looking at her with such confusion and concern, she found herself unable to lie to him.

“It’s my legs. They got pinned under some rubble after the explosion, and they’ve been a bit… off, ever since.” 

James frowned, forming little wrinkles between his eyebrows.

“Do you know why?”

“No.” Lily admitted, “They’re not normally this bad, though.”

“Uh huh.” James said, clearly not believing her, “Have you followed up with a doctor?” 

“They’d do an MRI, I don’t have that kind of money.”

James’ frown deepened.

“You work at a hospital, don’t you have insurance?” 

“Part time. Welcome to the American healthcare system.” Lily said with a wry smile. The pain in her leg was starting to subside, each little ebb a little weaker than the one before. She stretched her leg out experimentally, it seemed to be responding to stimulus again. 

“I’ll pay for it.” James said, just as Lily thought he might. The idea made her stomach squirm. 

“Don’t bother. It’s not a big deal. See, it’s already gone, help me up?” she held out her hand. He stood reluctantly, helping pull her up. 

“It looks like a big deal.” 

“James, let it go, alright?” Lily said. The idea of him, or anyone really, fussing over her was unsettling. Besides, she really wasn’t lying when she said it wasn’t so bad. She was starting to get a handle on reading it, knowing when it was going to flare up. She just hadn’t been paying attention today.

James sighed, not looking happy about it.

“Fine. But I’m definitely walking you home now.”

“You can take me to the train.” Lily conceded. He rolled his eyes, looking much more like his usual self.

“Do you not want me to know where you live?” James asked, “Because that would be understandable, not wanting to lead a weird guy right to your door.”

“Don’t want Marlene to see you, more like. She’d kidnap you and hide you in our broom closet.” Lily said, starting to walk in the direction of the nearest train stop. James took it as the invitation it was and walked beside her.

“See, now that sounds like a fun friend. Never a dull moment with Marlene, I’d bet.” 

“I know you think I’m kidding, but I’m not.” 

“Oh, I believe you. Wouldn’t be the first time someone’s tried to nab me, but it’d probably be the most fun.” 

Lily raised an eyebrow.

“People try to kidnap you?” she asked. That felt a little too far into the world of absurdity, though she really shouldn’t be surprised. Crazier things happened around here.

“Sure. I mean, more when I was a kid, but I still get the occasional weirdo now and again.” James said, not sounding the least bit concerned. 

“That’s horrible.” Lily said, surprising herself with how much she meant it. The image of James as a little kid popped into her head, all big sweet eyes and a toothy grin. Innocent. 

James just shrugged.

“People are desperate, sometimes. Can’t really blame them. Though some of them are just assholes, they can fuck off.” 

This elicited a reluctant laugh out of Lily, but it was not enough to distract her entirely. She couldn’t shake the strange feeling she had about the whole thing. It was wrong, didn’t make sense. She stopped walking. James followed suit, looking at her curiously.

“Why do you still live here?” she asked, looking him straight in the eye, searching them for something. What, she wasn’t entirely sure. He looked back at her, genuine confusion in his eyes.

“What do you mean?” he asked. 

“Why would you stay here? With people trying to kidnap you? I mean, you could live anywhere you wanted, Metropolis or something, somewhere nice, why would you stay after— after everything.” 

Lily stumbled over her words, unsure exactly if or how to talk about his parent’s deaths. But he seemed to know what she was asking anyways. He answered simply, easily, maybe too much of both. 

“Because it's home.”

“That’s it?” Lily asked. 

He contemplated what felt like a long time before speaking again, though it was probably only a few seconds.

“I don’t think I’d know how to live anywhere else.” he said, finally. 

“It’s easy. You just live.” Lily said, half joking, but James didn’t smile.

“Yeah. That’s the trouble, isn’t it?” he said. 

And Lily understood then, that he treated the city like every other Gotham native did: as a sinking black whirlpool of life and death, misery and joy, fatality and pure, random chaos. Impossible to escape, once you were caught in her current. More impossible to endure, if you were so lucky. Many were not. And not even James Potter's old money had been enough to shield him, or his parents. He had scars just like the rest of them.

When Lily had first moved here, she had thought this assessment of the city was an exaggeration, a sort of hyperbolic supersticion. She hadn't understood its contradictions. But the longer she stayed, the more she could see through the thin veneer of the city, right down to it's rotting, poisonous bones. She could see where it's black and inky influence dripped into every crevice of life, burning away as much good as it possibly could, through corruption and poverty and whatever else it could wield against its residents. 

And then there was the good of it all, the friendships forged in fire, the sense of comradery against a force intent on destruction. The way there was never a boring day, whether that meant a bomb exploding in your face or a random party in the street, just to celebrate your survival. It was agonizing just to exist here, but holy hell did you feel your existence. And maybe that was why James preferred it so much. 

He had gone after her, after all, the only person in the room who refused to make things easier for him, who was mean to him at every turn. The only one who wouldn't play nice just for the sake of it. The only one who wasn't so blinded by his wealth and celebrity to treat him like a normal person. 

So maybe he liked a challenge. Or maybe it was the realness of it all, the genuity of a city that refused to lie to you, that dealt you hardship and misery at every turn. Maybe that realness was the only thing that could break through the wall of artificiality that seemed to buffer him at all times. 

Metropolis couldn't give you that. Neither could London or New York or any other city on the planet, for that matter. In one category at least, Gotham had them beat. 

“Why do you live here?” James asked, pulling Lily out of her thoughts, “You’re not from here.” 

It was not a question, though Lily couldn’t remember if she had ever told him she was a transplant. He could probably just tell, most people could. Lily started walking again, James followed.

She cycled through answers in her head, trying to tow the line between honesty and acceptability. Most honest:  _ Because I’m punishing myself. Because my sister’s a bitch and my parents are dead. Because I run away from things, particularly my hometown, because you and I are not built the same. _

“I needed a change.” she said at last. It was as truthful as she could manage. 

James nodded, like he understood. For the first time Lily seriously considered the possibility that he might.

“Did you find it?” he asked. His warm brown eyes met hers, and Lily felt a rush of nerves, though she was unsure why. She’d looked at his eyes what felt like a hundred times before. 

“I think so.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whew! sorry that took forever to get out, I didn't realize how burned out I was from last semester until I got a break. I'll try to be more consistent from now on, but updates might move to tuesdays instead of mondays. thanks for being patient with me! 
> 
> I also added an epigraph to the beginning of chapter 1 because I randomly found a poem that felt really right! you can go back to ch1 to check it out, or just search compassion by miller williams, I used the last 2 lines :)


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